Free CISI Securities mock exam
Sit the whole Securities paper: 100 questions on the Version 25 syllabus, under a 120-minute clock. Free, no sign-up, with a weighted score, a nine-element breakdown and a written explanation for every answer.
Looking for the Level 4 IAD Securities mock?What is on the CISI Securities mock exam?
One full Securities practice paper: 100 questions in 120 minutes, weighted across the nine syllabus elements exactly as the real paper is. Score 70 out of 100 to meet the 70% practice threshold, then review every answer one at a time.
- Questions
- 100 original practice questions
- Time
- 120 minutes
- Practice threshold
- 70%, which is 70 of 100
- Access
- Free, with no account or card
How the paper is weighted
Securities is the CISI paper with the most lopsided weighting, and knowing that before you revise is worth more than any study tip. This mock follows the Version 25 syllabus that took effect on 22 March 2026.
| Element | Questions |
|---|---|
| 1. The Financial Services Industry | 3 |
| 2. Asset Classes | 27 |
| 3. Markets | 2 |
| 4. Primary Markets | 14 |
| 5. Secondary Markets | 15 |
| 6. Corporate Actions | 7 |
| 7. Clearing & Settlement | 8 |
| 8. Accounting Analysis | 14 |
| 9. Investment Management | 10 |
| Total | 100 |
Asset Classes alone is 27 of the 100 marks, and Asset Classes, Secondary Markets, Primary Markets and Accounting Analysis together decide 70 of them. Markets is two questions and The Financial Services Industry is three. Candidates routinely spend equal time on all nine elements and then wonder where the marks went.
For the cleanest rehearsal, set aside the full 120 minutes, avoid notes and answer every question. There is no negative marking on the real paper, so a guess is always better than a blank. The mock hides feedback until submission and warns you before handing in a paper with blanks.
Full practice paper
100 questions. 120 minutes. No sign-up.
Sit the paper in one go if you can. Answers and explanations stay hidden until you submit, so the score is a more useful rehearsal than an instant-feedback quiz.
The timer starts when you press the button. Reloading or leaving the page ends this sitting.
Sample Securities questions, with answers
8 questions at the standard of the paper above, weighted towards the elements that carry the most marks. Pick an answer to see whether you were right and why. None of these appear in the timed mock, so working through them first costs you nothing when you sit it.
Who holds the property of an open-ended investment company and monitors its authorised corporate director?
Not quite. The answer is C.
In a corporate fund the depositary holds the scheme property and oversees the party running the fund, so it combines safekeeping with a supervisory duty. The closest distractor is the trustee, which performs exactly that role in a unit trust and therefore attracts anyone who has learned the trust structure only. A custodian safekeeps assets for any client without the oversight duty, and a nominee company simply holds registered title.
A holder of American depositary receipts wants the underlying shares themselves. The receipts are surrendered and:
Not quite. The answer is C.
Cancellation is the mirror of creation: the depositary destroys the receipts and instructs its custodian to release the shares it already holds, keeping receipts and shares in step. No new shares are issued, since the company plays no part in the mechanics and in an unsponsored programme is not even a party. The custodian buys nothing in the market, because the shares are on deposit already.
Who leads the verification of the statements made in a flotation prospectus?
Not quite. The answer is A.
Verification is the exercise of checking every statement in the prospectus back to its source, and it is run by the legal advisers because the issuer and its directors are legally responsible for the document. The closest distractor is the reporting accountants, who examine the historic financial record and report on it, but who test the figures rather than the statements made throughout the document. The corporate broker advises on demand and pricing and the stabilisation manager acts only once dealings begin.
A market has deep liquidity and no restriction on repatriating capital. How will an index provider classify it?
Not quite. The answer is D.
Developed status turns on regulatory quality, market depth and unrestricted access for foreign capital, all of which are present here. A market of similar size that capped foreign ownership or held up the repatriation of proceeds would be classified as emerging. Frontier status reflects failure to meet the size and liquidity tests at all, and standalone is reserved for markets that foreigners can barely access.
A rights issue is priced at 320p and by the acceptance date the shares trade at 305p. Which of the following is the best course for a shareholder?
Not quite. The answer is A.
With the market price below the subscription price the new shares can be bought more cheaply in the market, so the rights are worthless and the sensible course is to let them lapse. The closest distractor is to sell nil paid, which is normally the right answer for a holder who does not want to subscribe, but it raises nothing here because nobody will pay for the right to overpay. Taking up in full means paying 320p for something worth 305p, and splitting the letter serves no purpose when there is no value to divide between the two parts.
A UK bank must make a £40m payment to another bank for value the same day. Which of the following systems does it use?
Not quite. The answer is D.
CHAPS is the UK sterling real time gross settlement system and is the route for high value, same day interbank payments. TARGET2 is the closest distractor because it does the equivalent job in real time gross settlement, but it is the euro area system and settles euro, not sterling. CREST settles the cash leg of securities trades and CLS Bank settles foreign exchange, so neither is used for a stand alone domestic sterling payment.
Which of the following ratios does NOT use any measure of revenue, profit or earnings?
Not quite. The answer is A.
The current ratio compares current assets with current liabilities, so it is built entirely from the statement of financial position and needs no figure from the income statement at all. The other three each rest on a measure of trading performance: asset turnover divides revenue by net assets, interest cover divides operating profit by the finance charge, and dividend cover divides earnings per share by the dividend per share, so a measure of earnings sits at the heart of each of them.
Why does a money market fund NOT shield an investor's income when base rates are cut by 2 percentage points?
Not quite. The answer is C.
Money market paper is always maturing and being reinvested, so within weeks the fund's yield reflects the new, lower level of short term rates. The reason these funds give no protection at all against falling rates. The fixed coupon answer is the closest distractor: it is true of each individual instrument, but the instrument is repaid so quickly that the fixed rate never protects the investor for long.
Where the marks go on this paper
Accounting Analysis is the element that decides most Securities results. Fourteen marks sit in ratio analysis and reading a set of accounts, and it is the part of the syllabus furthest from the day job of most candidates, who work on a desk rather than in a finance function. People who ration their revision by comfort do this element last and run out of time.
Asset Classes is 27 marks and rewards precision rather than reading. The paper will ask you to separate a covered bond from an asset-backed security, or a depositary receipt from the underlying share, and it will offer you three plausible near-misses to choose from.
Corporate Actions and Clearing & Settlement are only fifteen marks between them but they are the ones most often answered by intuition. Mandatory, voluntary and mandatory-with-options are precise categories, and a rights issue calculation done from memory of the method rather than practice of it is a slow mark at best.
How to use your result
Treat 70% as a practice threshold, not a readiness promise. A stronger signal is a run of timed scores above the threshold with no element repeatedly falling behind. On this paper the element breakdown matters more than the total. A 68% built on a strong Asset Classes score and a collapse in Accounting Analysis is a very different position from a flat 68% across the board, and it needs a different week of revision.
Use the answer review to understand each miss, then revisit the relevant part of the Securities exam guide. To drill a single topic rather than sit a whole paper, start with the free Securities practice questions.
Looking for official material? Securities past papers: what actually exists explains what CISI actually publishes and how to combine it with question practice. For more full papers, see the paid plans, from £59.
Independent practice material: PasskeyPrep is not affiliated with, endorsed by or accredited by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. These questions were written independently against the syllabus. They are not copied from a live CISI exam or official past paper.
Frequently asked questions
Is this CISI Securities mock exam really free?
Yes. All 100 questions are free to sit, with no account, email address or card. Submit the paper and you get your score, a breakdown across the nine elements and an explanation for every answer.
Does this mock use the current Securities syllabus?
It follows Version 25, effective 22 March 2026, in which Markets rose from one question to two and Investment Management fell from eleven to ten. The questions are original PasskeyPrep practice material, not the CISI examination platform or official exam questions.
Do I have to sit Securities as well as Derivatives?
No. The Capital Markets Programme is completed with UK Financial Regulation plus one technical unit, either Securities or Derivatives. You can sit both, but only one is required.
What score should I aim for?
The exam pass mark is 70%, so this mock marks 70 out of 100 as meeting the practice threshold. One result cannot predict or guarantee an exam result. Look for consistent scores across timed attempts and treat Accounting Analysis as the element most worth checking separately.