United Kingdom Roadmap: CISI Qualifications

This is a practical study roadmap, not official regulatory guidance. The six live UK CISI exams behind this roadmap currently map to more than 6,000 questions inside Finance Prep.

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Typical starting points (United Kingdom)

Pick the route that matches your target role:

1. UK-first foundation before anything more specialised

   • Start with CISI Introduction to Investment
   • Then move into either UK Regulation & Professional Integrity or Investment, Risk and Taxation depending on whether your next step is regulation or advice
   • Use International Introduction to Investment instead only when you want the broader global foundation path rather than a UK-first paper

2. Investment advice / retail-advice path

   • Start with CISI Introduction to Investment if you want the shorter UK-first base
   • Then build the two core advice papers: UK Regulation & Professional Integrity and Investment, Risk and Taxation
   • Use Investment Advice Diploma (IAD) as the broader qualification view once you want the full sequence rather than one unit at a time

3. Compliance, conduct, and financial-crime path

   • Start with UK Regulation & Professional Integrity
   • Then choose either Combating Financial Crime for AML, sanctions, and fraud depth or Risk in Financial Services for broader enterprise-risk coverage

4. Investment-management and valuation path

   • Start with UK Regulation & Professional Integrity
   • Then move into CISI Investment Management (Level 4)
   • Together, those two pages map to the two-unit sequence used for the Level 4 Certificate in Investment Management

5. Investment operations path

   • If you want a broader starting paper first, use International Introduction to Investment
   • Then use the IOC sequence guide as the broader operations qualification view for servicing, control, and oversight roles

Common UK route bundles

Visual roadmap (non-official)

    flowchart TD
	  A["Start<br/>UK CISI path"] --> B["UK-first foundation<br/>Introduction to Investment"]
	  A --> C["Global foundation<br/>International Introduction to Investment"]
	  B --> D["Regulation core<br/>UK Regulation & Professional Integrity"]
	  B --> E["Advice core<br/>Investment, Risk and Taxation"]
	  D --> F["Advice qualification view<br/>IAD"]
	  E --> F
	  D --> G["Financial-crime path<br/>Combating Financial Crime"]
	  D --> H["Risk breadth path<br/>Risk in Financial Services"]
	  D --> I["Level 4 technical unit<br/>Investment Management"]
	  I --> J["Certificate in Investment Management<br/>with UK Regulation"]
	  C --> K["Operations sequence guide<br/>IOC"]

Plain-text version:

• If you want the cleanest UK-first start, begin with Introduction to Investment.
• If your path is advice-led, build through UK Regulation & Professional Integrity and Investment, Risk and Taxation, then use IAD as the wider qualification view.
• If your path is compliance or risk-led, begin with UK Regulation & Professional Integrity and then choose Combating Financial Crime or Risk in Financial Services.
• If your path is investment management, pair UK Regulation & Professional Integrity with Investment Management (Level 4).
• If your path is operations-led and you want the broader global foundation first, start with International Introduction to Investment and then use the IOC sequence guide.

Notes

• Always confirm current employer, regulator, and role-specific qualification requirements before committing to one path.
• These UK pages are live on Mastery Exam Prep now, so use them to confirm the right qualification path, compare unit weightings, and continue into Finance Prep on web, plans, login, or downloads.
• Use the CISI exam pages first to confirm whether you need a unit-level practice page or a broader qualification guide such as IAD or IOC.

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