Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) Certification
Risk managers spend their careers working out what might go wrong with a bank's positions, loans and operations, and by how much. The FRM is the credential that profession built for itself: GARP designed it for people who measure loss before it happens.
Two exams, with Part II due within four years of passing Part I, then two years of relevant work.
Certificate facts
- Level
- Professional
- Field
- Finance & accounting
- Access
- Paid
- Assessment
- Proctored exam
- Duration
- 240 minutes
- Questions
- Part I: 100 equally weighted multiple-choice questions. Part II: 80. Four hours for each part
- Passing score
- Pass or fail; GARP adds a quartile result comparing you with other candidates and does not publish a cut score
- Languages
- EnglishGARP's exam pages do not name an exam language; the official study materials and the candidate pages are in English.
- Price
- 800 USD (read 26 September 2026)
- Validity
- never expires
- Exam delivery
- Computer-based at PSI test centres, or ATA centres in mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and Thailand; windows in May, August and November
Prerequisites: None to register for Part I. Part II must be passed within four years of passing Part I, and two years of full-time relevant work experience must be submitted within ten years of sitting Part II.
Renewal: GARP describes no expiry. Certified professionals are expected to earn 40 continuing professional development credits in each 24-month cycle.
Source: certificate page at Global Association of Risk Professionals · Price: Per part at standard registration for the November 2026 exams (register by 30 Sep 2026). New candidates also pay a one-time 400 USD enrolment fee with their first Part I registration; taxes are added at checkout (read 2026-09-26)
How to prepare
1. Online courses
Courses and practice questions from the directory that target exactly this exam — details, price and the provider link (affiliate) are on the course page.
- Preparation courseFRM Part 1 - Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4 Quizzes MocksPart I, all four books; GARP revises the curriculum yearly, so check the edition.
- Preparation courseFinancial Risk Manager (FRM) Certification: Level IIPart II.
- Practice testsFinancial Risk Manager (FRM) - 500 Exam Practice QuestionsQuestion practice across both parts.
Book the exam
Delivered by Computer-based at PSI test centres, or ATA centres in mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and Thailand; windows in May, August and November. Schedule with Global Association of Risk Professionals (opens in a new tab)
Affiliate disclosure: the course link above is an affiliate link — buying through them may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. The vendor's learning path and booking links carry no commission.
Part II follows Part I within days
In the November 2026 window Part I runs from the 14th to the 20th and Part II from the 21st to the 25th, which makes a double sitting look tempting. The GARP pages consulted here do not set out the rules for booking both parts in one window, so read GARP's exam policies before paying twice.
Tools first, then the risks they measure
The split between the parts is deliberate. Part I is the toolkit: the foundations of risk management as a discipline, quantitative analysis, financial markets and the products traded in them, and the valuation and risk models used to price those products. Part II turns the toolkit on the risk families a financial institution actually manages: market, credit, operational and resilience, liquidity and treasury, plus investment-management risk and a section on current issues that GARP's committee refreshes as the industry changes.
That refresh matters more than it does for most exams. The FRM Committee, a panel of practitioners from banks, regulators, asset managers and universities, revises the curriculum every year. Study material from two years ago is not a safe substitute for the current readings, especially in Part II.
| Aspect | Part I | Part II |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 100 multiple choice | 80 multiple choice |
| Time | Four hours | Four hours |
| Content | Foundations, quantitative analysis, markets and products, valuation and risk models | Market, credit, operational, liquidity and treasury risk; investment management; current issues |
| Deadline | None | Within four years of passing Part I |
After the exams: experience and CPD
Passing both parts does not make you certified. You then submit evidence of two years of full-time work in a relevant role, and you have ten years from sitting Part II to do so; the experience can be earned before or after the exams. Once certified, GARP expects forty development credits every two years through its CPD programme. The page describes no expiry, and GARP phrases CPD as an expectation rather than a condition of keeping the title.
- Three windows a year: May, August and November, at PSI test centres, or ATA centres in mainland China, Hong Kong and Thailand.
- Results within eight weeks of the window closing, as pass or fail with a quartile position.
- Study time: GARP's average is about 240 hours, with its survey ranging from under 100 to more than 400.
The fee structure rewards planning. A new candidate pays a one-time enrolment charge with the first Part I registration, then a separate fee for each part, and GARP prices each part by registration period: on the reading day the early period for November 2026 had closed and standard registration ran until 30 September. Taxes are added at checkout according to where you live, and paying by wire or ACH adds a processing charge that card and Alipay payments avoid. Candidates who need both parts within a year should compare the calendar with the price tiers before committing, because a missed early deadline raises the cost of every later step.
What a question looks like
Written by us in the exam's style. It is not a real question from any question bank, and we do not publish those.
A bank's one-day 99 % value-at-risk on a trading book has been exceeded four times in the last 250 days. The desk argues that the model is fine because losses on those days were only slightly above the estimate. What does the backtest actually tell you, and what would you check next?
The size of each exception is a distraction. The question turns on how many exceptions a well-calibrated model should produce, whether four is statistically unusual, and whether the exceptions cluster in time, which would point to a model that ignores changing volatility.
What it costs to get and to keep
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Enrolment, once | 400 USD | paid by new candidates with the first Part I registration (read 26 September 2026) |
| Part I, standard registration | 800 USD | November 2026 window; taxes added at checkout; early-registration pricing was closed on the reading day (read 26 September 2026) |
| Part II, standard registration | 800 USD | November 2026 window, same conditions (read 26 September 2026) |
| Wire or ACH payment | 50 USD | processing fee added to invoices paid by wire or ACH; card and Alipay payments carry no such fee (read 26 September 2026) |
| Continuing development | not published | 40 CPD credits expected per two-year cycle; GARP's own activities vary in credit value and the CPD page does not state a programme fee (read 26 September 2026) |
How much preparation, from where you are
- Quantitative graduate (maths, physics, engineering)
- Part I's quantitative analysis will feel light; financial products and the institutional detail in Part II are where your time goes.
- Banker or auditor without heavy statistics
- The reverse problem: you know how credit and operations work, and regression, volatility modelling and option pricing will need patient study.
- Already through CFA Level I
- Parts of Part I's markets and products material will look familiar. The Part II risk families are the FRM's own territory; plan them as new work.
What passing this does not prove
- Building or coding a risk model; the exams ask you to interpret and choose, not to implement.
- Regulatory reporting as a specific jurisdiction's supervisor requires it.
- The judgement to challenge a trading desk in a meeting, which is most of the second line's job.
- Anything written after the curriculum's annual cut-off.
Against the alternatives
- CFA® Program Level I
- The CFA Program is broader and aims at investment decision-making; the FRM is narrower and aims at the risk function. For a career in a bank's risk department the FRM is the more direct signal, and needs only two exams, not three.
- CFP® certification (CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®)
- Different profession entirely: the CFP serves households, the FRM serves institutions. The only overlap is vocabulary.
Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) Certification — quick answers
What does the FRM cost in total?
Two exam registrations plus a one-time enrolment fee, before study materials and any retakes. Each part is priced by registration period, so registering early saves money; the current figures are in the cost table.
How long does the FRM take?
Two exams, with Part II due within four years of passing Part I. GARP's average is around 240 hours of study, and the two years of experience can run in parallel.
Does the FRM expire?
GARP describes no expiry. It asks certified professionals for forty CPD credits per two-year cycle.
Is FRM or CFA better for risk management?
For a risk role inside a bank, insurer or asset manager, the FRM is the more targeted credential. The CFA charter carries more weight where the job is choosing investments rather than measuring their risk.
Where this certificate sits in the field
What comes next
Concepts this certificate draws on
Glossary entries with the reason each one matters for Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) Certification.
- Derivative
Named in the FRM curriculum's market and product areas.
- Leverage
Named in the FRM curriculum's market and product areas.
- Diversification
Named in the FRM curriculum's market and product areas.
- AML
Named in the FRM curriculum's market and product areas.
Last reviewed 26 September 2026 · Getting Digital