Free CISI UK Financial Regulation mock exam
Sit a complete 75-question practice paper under a 90-minute clock. It is free, needs no sign-up and gives you a weighted result, an element-by-element breakdown and full answer explanations.
What does the free mock include?
One full UK Financial Regulation practice paper, weighted 12/35/19/9 across the four syllabus elements. Score at least 53 out of 75 to meet the 70% practice threshold, then review every answer one at a time.
- Questions
- 75 original practice questions
- Time
- 90 minutes
- Practice threshold
- 70%, which is 53 of 75
- Access
- Free, with no account or card
How the paper is weighted
This mock follows the question count for each UK Financial Regulation syllabus element. Conduct of Business and Client Assets carries almost half the paper, so the result does not give a small topic the same influence as a 35-question element.
| Element | Questions |
|---|---|
| 1. The Regulatory Environment | 12 |
| 2. Conduct of Business & Client Assets | 35 |
| 3. Enhancing Market Integrity | 19 |
| 4. Complaints & Redress | 9 |
| Total | 75 |
Conduct of Business and Client Assets is 35 of the 75 marks on its own, and adding Enhancing Market Integrity takes two elements to 54 of the 75, around 72% of the paper. The Regulatory Environment is twelve marks and Complaints and Redress is nine, so the two elements that bookend the syllabus decide 21 marks between them.
For the cleanest rehearsal, set aside the full 90 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
75 questions. 90 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 UK Financial Regulation 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.
Which of the following Bank of England committees sets Bank Rate and is responsible for the Monetary Policy Report?
Not quite. The answer is C.
Setting Bank Rate to meet the inflation target is the job of the Monetary Policy Committee, and the Monetary Policy Report is its published account of the outlook for inflation and growth. The closest distractor is the Financial Policy Committee, which publishes the twice-yearly Financial Stability Report; both committees sit in the Bank and both publish regular reports, but the FPC is concerned with the resilience of the financial system rather than with interest rates.
Which arrangement for the compliance function would the FCA be MOST likely to criticise?
Not quite. The answer is D.
Compliance must be independent of the business it monitors, so embedding it in the front office destroys the independence the FCA expects. Periodic review by internal audit is exactly what the rules contemplate, since compliance is reviewed by a separate function rather than sitting within it. Reporting to the governing body and being separately resourced both support independence rather than undermining it.
Which of the following is NOT an obligation that EMIR imposes on derivative users?
Not quite. The answer is C.
EMIR imposes three obligations: central clearing of eligible over the counter contracts, risk mitigation for those that remain uncleared, and reporting to a trade repository. Orderly market functioning is a regulatory objective that the regime pursues, not a duty placed on a counterparty. Reporting is the obligation candidates recall most easily, but clearing and risk mitigation carry equal weight and are frequently forgotten.
Which statement about simulated past performance in a financial promotion is FALSE?
Not quite. The answer is A.
Simulated figures may never be presented as a reliable guide to what the investment will do next, and any promotion must carry a warning to that effect. The simulation must be built on the actual past performance of the investments or indices underlying the product, rather than on assumptions the firm has chosen. The reference period and the source must be stated, and the figures must be clearly labelled as simulated.
Which of the following describes the venues whose securities fall within the criminal insider dealing regime?
Not quite. The answer is B.
The regime reaches regulated markets, multilateral trading facilities and organised trading facilities in the United Kingdom, the EEA and Gibraltar, together with certain exchanges named by order. Excluding everything beyond those venues is the closest distractor, and it is nearly right, but the named exchanges are expressly brought in.
Which of the following is NOT required of the recipient of a market sounding?
Not quite. The answer is D.
The recipient has no duty to contact the issuer whose transaction is being sounded; its duties run to assessing the information, recording the sounding and refraining from dealing while it holds inside information. Keeping a record is the closest distractor because candidates assume records are the disclosing firm's job alone, but the recipient must keep its own record too.
A compliance officer is asked how the first data protection principle describes the required processing. The correct wording is:
Not quite. The answer is C.
The first principle requires personal data to be processed lawfully and fairly, with transparency added by UK GDPR. Accuracy is a separate principle, concerned with keeping data correct and up to date, and security belongs to the integrity and confidentiality principle. Proportionality sits closer to the requirement that data be adequate, relevant and not excessive.
The FCA regards a term in a firm's consumer contracts as unfair. Which of the following actions are open to it? I Seek an undertaking to amend the term. II Apply to the court for an injunction. III Declare the contract void by notice. IV Prosecute the directors who approved it.
Not quite. The answer is D.
As a designated enforcer the FCA may press the firm for an undertaking to change or drop the term and, if that fails, ask the court for an injunction restraining its use. Only a court can rule that a term is not binding, so the regulator cannot avoid the contract by notice, and the Act creates no criminal liability for directors who approve an unfair term.
Where the marks go on this paper
Element two is the paper. Thirty-five of the 75 marks sit in Conduct of Business and Client Assets: the FCA Principles for Businesses, client categorisation, financial promotions and communicating with clients, suitability and appropriateness, conflicts of interest, inducements, and the client money and custody rules under CASS. Four equal blocks of revision give a quarter of your hours to nearly half the marks.
That element is lost the same way every time. Candidates learn the topic and the paper asks for the detail, so you can know broadly what CASS is for and still miss every CASS question. Re-reading the section does not fix it. Being asked about it until the precise version is the one that surfaces first does.
Enhancing Market Integrity is nineteen marks and the element people most often meet at work without ever learning the framework behind it. Market abuse and the rules against it, insider dealing, the stages money laundering moves through, the proceeds of crime reporting obligations and bribery are examined as named regimes with named offences, not as a vague sense that something is not allowed.
The Regulatory Environment at twelve marks and Complaints and Redress at nine are the cheap ones: the twin-peaks split between the FCA and the PRA, the threshold conditions and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime at one end, complaints handling, the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme at the other. Twenty-one learnable marks, skipped because the elements look small.
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 that means reading the Conduct of Business and Client Assets line before the total. Thirty-five marks cannot be made up anywhere else, so a pass carried by the three smaller elements is one you will struggle to repeat, while a near miss with that element strong is usually a fortnight of drilling away.
Use the answer review to understand each miss, then revisit the relevant part of the UK Financial Regulation exam guide. To drill a single topic rather than sit a whole paper, start with the free UK Financial Regulation practice questions.
Looking for official material? UK Financial Regulation 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 UK Financial Regulation mock exam really free?
Yes. The full 75-question practice mock is free to sit, with no account, email address or card required. Submit the paper to see your score, element breakdown and an explanation for every answer.
Does this mock match the CISI UK Financial Regulation exam format?
It uses 75 questions, a 90-minute timer, a 70% practice threshold and the four published syllabus element weightings: 12, 35, 19 and 9 questions. The interface and questions are PasskeyPrep practice material, not the CISI examination platform or official exam questions.
What score should I aim for?
The exam pass mark is 70%, so this mock marks 53 out of 75 as meeting the practice threshold. A single practice result cannot predict or guarantee an exam result; look for consistent scores across timed attempts and review your weaker elements.
Can I review the answers after the mock?
Yes. After you submit, you can review all 75 questions one at a time. The review shows your choice, the correct answer and a written explanation.