CISI Combating Financial Crime Past Papers: What Exists (2026)
No public past papers exist for CISI Combating Financial Crime. Here's the official material that does, and where to get current, weighted 50-question mocks.
Are there past papers for the CISI Combating Financial Crime exam?
No, CISI does not publish past papers for Combating Financial Crime, and sat papers are never released. What exists officially is one specimen paper, plus the end-of-chapter questions and practice paper in the workbook, currently Edition 12 (October 2025), set against syllabus version 12 for exams sat between 11 January 2026 and 10 January 2027. The paper is 50 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, 70% to pass, so 35 of 50, no negative marking, with up to 10% extra unscored trial questions.
- Official past papers
- None. Previously sat papers are never released and the live bank rotates
- What CISI does provide
- One specimen paper, plus end-of-chapter questions and a practice paper in the official workbook
- Questions
- 50, multiple choice, plus up to 10% additional unscored trial questions
- Time
- 60 minutes, computer based
- Pass mark
- 70%, so 35 of 50, no negative marking
- Qualification
- CISI Level 3 Award; the same paper serves as an IOC technical unit and as an optional unit of the Level 6 Diploma in Investment Compliance
- Current workbook
- Edition 12, October 2025, syllabus version 12, for exams from 11 January 2026 to 10 January 2027
- Elements
- Eight, weighted 7, 8, 3, 8, 4, 4, 3 and 13 of 50, with Financial Crime Risk Management the largest at 13
Combating Financial Crime candidates arrive from two directions. Some are already in the seat, as compliance officers, MLROs or financial crime analysts, and need the qualification on record. Others are moving across from audit or operations and are learning the subject properly for the first time. Either way the exam is usually employer-funded, the date is usually already in the diary, and the search for past papers follows. CISI does not publish them for this paper and never has. What exists officially is one specimen paper and the questions inside the workbook; everything else circulating online is unofficial, undated, and written against workbook editions that syllabus version 12 has already superseded.
The paper you are preparing for
| Qualification | CISI Level 3 Award in Combating Financial Crime; the same paper serves as an IOC technical unit and as an optional unit of the Level 6 Diploma in Investment Compliance |
| Questions | 50, multiple choice |
| Time | 60 minutes |
| Pass mark | 70%, so 35 of 50, no negative marking |
| Format | Computer based |
The 50 questions are split across eight elements, and the split is deliberately lopsided. Financial Crime Risk Management is 13 of them, more than a quarter of the paper, and it is the applied element: risk factors, controls, customer due diligence and the judgement a compliance function actually exercises. Money Laundering and Bribery and Corruption carry eight each, The Background and Nature of Financial Crime seven, Fraud and Market Abuse and Tax Evasion four each, and Terrorist Financing and Economic Sanctions three each. Element 8 on its own outweighs Terrorist Financing, Economic Sanctions and Tax Evasion combined, so it deserves the same share of your revision. For the money laundering element, start with the three stages of money laundering.
Test yourself on Combating Fin. Crime
4 questions written to the current syllabus, in the format of the real paper. Pick an answer and the explanation appears. Nothing to sign up for.
Each of the following is a measure the UN Security Council may impose under a sanctions regime EXCEPT:
Not quite. The answer is D.
Security Council regimes draw on a defined menu — travel bans, asset freezes, arms embargoes, bans on exports of luxury goods, commodity bans such as diamonds, and bans on goods and technology linked to weapons programmes. Extradition works through an entirely separate route: domestic and international extradition law, treaty arrangements between states, and generally a requirement of dual criminality. It is a mechanism for bringing a person to trial, not a restriction imposed by resolution.
Which of the following POCA offences is committed by someone concerned in a scheme that helps another person retain criminal property?
Not quite. The answer is D.
The arrangements offence catches a person who is concerned in an arrangement that they know or suspect facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property for someone else. It is interpreted broadly — someone inside a financial firm who merely advises on a transaction can fall within it. Concealing is the near neighbour, but that offence is aimed at hiding or disguising the property itself rather than at being party to the scheme.
What does the frequent link between terrorist groups and other criminal activity explain about the rules addressing the two crimes?
Not quite. The answer is A.
Because terrorist groups can be involved in ordinary crime as well, the same customers, accounts and transfers surface under both headings, so the anti-money laundering provisions and the rules aimed at terrorist funding inevitably cover some of the same ground. That overlap is why a firm runs one set of controls — identity verification, additional information gathering and transaction monitoring — against both risks rather than building two. The regimes are not interchangeable, though: neither displaces the other, and terrorist financing is a distinct concern rather than merely something that generates proceeds to launder.
A control against bribery rather than an element of the offence is:
Not quite. The answer is A.
Bribery covers the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting of anything of value in order to influence a person charged with a public or legal duty, and a bare promise or undertaking is enough — the benefit need never change hands. Declaring an advantage to the compliance function is the opposite conduct: it is the control firms rely on to demonstrate that a benefit did not influence anyone's judgement. Soliciting is the tempting exception, because the person soliciting offers nothing, but demanding a benefit sits expressly inside the definition.
That is 4 of more than 7,200 questions in the Passkey bank. Chapter 1 of every supported exam is free, with the study notes and flashcards that go with it.
More free questions on Combating Fin. Crime·Open chapter 1 free
What official material exists
One specimen paper written to the live standard, the end-of-chapter questions and practice paper in the official workbook, the paid Revision Express tool, and the free Prometric demo of the test software. The current workbook is Edition 12, published October 2025 and set against syllabus version 12, which governs exams sat between 11 January 2026 and 10 January 2027. Sit the specimen paper once, timed, late in your revision. None of the official material is renewable, and spending it in week one costs you the only clean read you get on your own readiness.
Why old financial crime material is a poor shortcut
Financial crime dates faster than anything else CISI examines. Sanctions designations move with geopolitics, FATF revises its recommendations and its assessments of individual jurisdictions, and the money laundering regulations are amended more often than the rest of the syllabus put together. Syllabus version 12 and Edition 12 replace what came before them, so a question written against an earlier edition can test a threshold, an offence or a named body that has since changed, and nothing in the document will tell you that it has. Unofficial PDFs add a second problem on top: unchecked answer keys, and a fair number of documents that are not this paper at all. Financial crime appears inside UK Financial Regulation and Global Financial Compliance too, at a different depth and a different weighting, and material lifted from either will mislead you about what 50 questions in 60 minutes actually asks.
The alternative: current, weighted mock papers
Passkey gives Combating Financial Crime six full mock papers, each 50 questions in 60 minutes, weighted element by element like the real paper: 13 questions on Financial Crime Risk Management, eight each on Money Laundering and Bribery and Corruption, three on Terrorist Financing. Papers 1 to 4 share no questions with each other, and papers 5 and 6 are held back as unseen challenge sets for the fortnight before your exam. Questions are written from scratch against syllabus version 12, every answer carries a full explanation, and practice mode sorts the bank by your weak elements, which is what makes twenty minutes between case reviews worth spending.
Start free. Try a set of free Combating Financial Crime practice questions. The first chapter of the CFC bank is free in the app.
Every Combating Financial Crime revision resource, in one list
- The official CISI Combating Financial Crime workbook, Edition 12 (October 2025), set against syllabus version 12 for exams from 11 January 2026 to 10 January 2027.
- The official specimen paper, sat once under the clock.
- CISI Revision Express (paid) and the free Prometric CBT demo.
- Passkey: the full CFC bank, six weighted 50-question mock papers, explanations and weak-spot tracking. £59 once covers all eleven supported exams, for 90 days from purchase.
- Free Combating Financial Crime practice questions.
- Our explainer on the three stages of money laundering and the complete guide to passing CISI exams.
Passkey is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. If you are weighing this paper against the broader compliance award, Global Financial Compliance past papers covers that one. For the picture across every paper, see CISI past papers: what's actually available.
Sit a whole paper for free. The free 50-question Combating Financial Crime mock exam runs to the real time limit and the published element weighting, with a score, an element breakdown and an explanation for every answer. No sign-up.
Frequently asked questions
Does CISI publish past papers for Combating Financial Crime?
No. One official specimen paper exists, plus the end-of-chapter and practice questions in the official workbook. Previously sat papers are never released and the live bank rotates.
What is the format of the CISI Combating Financial Crime exam?
50 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, computer based, 70% to pass, so 35 correct out of 50, no negative marking, with up to 10% additional unscored trial questions. It earns the CISI Level 3 Award, and the same paper counts as an IOC technical unit and as an optional unit of the Level 6 Diploma in Investment Compliance.
Which part of the syllabus carries the most marks?
Element 8, Financial Crime Risk Management, at 13 of the 50 questions. It is over a quarter of the paper and the most applied part of it: scenario-style questions on risk factors, controls and customer due diligence rather than definitions. Element 2, Money Laundering, and element 4, Bribery and Corruption, are next at eight each.
Can I revise from Global Financial Compliance material instead?
Not as a substitute. Global Financial Compliance gives financial crime one element of five, 20 questions of 100, inside a paper about the compliance function. Combating Financial Crime spends all 50 questions on the subject across eight elements, so it goes deeper on money laundering, bribery, sanctions and tax evasion. Use GFC material for background, not for calibration.
Find your weak spots before exam day.
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