CM-EIP is the Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services (CMFAS) product knowledge module on Excluded Investment Products, covering securities, collective investment schemes and foreign exchange. In Singapore's licensing framework, candidates usually take CM-EIP alongside a Rules, Ethics and Skills module such as RES 1A, RES 1B, RES 12B or RES 3, depending on the regulated activity they intend to perform. The module tests applied product knowledge rather than ethics or dealing rules, so preparation centres on investment fundamentals: risk and return, company analysis, fixed income, funds, REITs, warrants, FX and market analysis. This study guide distils 30 core concepts across the official syllabus, explains how they connect, and provides self-check scenarios and a staged revision plan. Work through the concepts topic by topic, use the self-check items to test application under time pressure, and always cross-reference the current IBF study guide, since the syllabus and product landscape are updated periodically.
Exam and assessment essentials
- Format
- 90 multiple-choice questions, computer based[1]
- Duration
- 2.5 hours[1]
- Pass mark
- 70%[1]
- Exam fees (GST inclusive, as listed at time of checking - confirm at registration)
- S$207.10 for IBF Corporate Members; S$250.70 for Non-Corporate Members[1]
- Exemptions
- Governed by the list in MAS Notice SFA 04-N22[1]
- Results
- Displayed on screen after the exam; result slips can be printed from the IBF Portal account the next business day[1]
- Study guide access
- Registered candidates receive PDF access via the IBF Portal; access expires on the day of the registered examination, and candidates should use the latest version[2]
What the syllabus covers
This study map groups the official scope into revision themes. It is not an official chapter list or a prediction of question weightings.
Introduction to investing, investments and financial markets
Explain why capital markets exist, how savings are channelled to users of capital, and how primary and secondary markets, intermediaries and different asset classes fit together[1]
Risk, return and time value calculations
Quantify return, compare risk measures such as volatility, and perform future value, present value and compounding calculations accurately[1]
Key drivers of market movements and asset values
Relate interest rates, inflation, monetary conditions and the business cycle to the pricing of shares and bonds[1]
Foreign exchange
Read currency quotations and spreads, and assess how exchange rate movements change returns on foreign-currency investments[1]
Company analysis and understanding financial statements
Interpret the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement, and use ratios to evaluate profitability, liquidity and leverage[1]
Equity securities
Describe shareholder rights, dividend mechanics and common equity valuation approaches such as dividend yield and earnings multiples[1]
Deposits and fixed-income securities
Explain bond pricing, the inverse price-yield relationship, interest rate risk, duration and credit risk[1]
Portfolio management
Apply diversification, asset allocation, correlation and rebalancing concepts, and match portfolios to investor risk profiles[1]
Exchange traded funds, unit trusts, real estate investment trusts and insurance
Compare fund structures (NAV-based unit trusts versus exchange traded ETFs), understand REIT income characteristics, and distinguish insurance benefit types[1]
Warrants
Explain gearing, intrinsic versus time value, and how expiry affects warrant pricing and total loss risk[1]
Technical analysis and quantitative analysis
Interpret trends, support and resistance, and moving averages, and contrast technical with fundamental approaches[1]
Case studies
Integrate the above knowledge to analyse client scenarios, match products to objectives and risk tolerance, and identify unsuitable recommendations[1]
30 key concepts to understand
- Primary versus secondary markets
- Money market versus capital market instruments
- The risk-return trade-off
- Systematic versus unsystematic risk and the limits of diversification
- Compounding and the time value of money
- Volatility as a measure of risk
- Interest rates as the key driver of asset values
- Inflation and purchasing power
- The business cycle and market behaviour
- Currency pairs, quotations and spreads
- Unhedged foreign exchange exposure
- How the three financial statements connect
- Using financial ratios for company analysis
- Shareholder rights and share characteristics
- Dividend yield versus capital gain
- Relative valuation with earnings and book multiples
- The inverse bond price-yield relationship
- Interest rate risk and duration
- Credit risk and ratings
- Asset allocation and correlation
- Risk profiling and rebalancing
- Unit trusts: NAV, pricing and fees
- ETFs: passive exposure and tracking
- REITs: structure and income characteristics
- Indemnity versus fixed-benefit insurance
- Warrant gearing and leverage
- Warrant time value and expiry
- Trends, support and resistance
- Moving averages and technical versus fundamental analysis
- Case study discipline: matching products to the investor
Introduction to investing, investments and financial markets
1. Primary versus secondary markets
The primary market is where new securities are issued and the issuer receives the proceeds, such as an IPO or a new bond issue. The secondary market is where existing securities change hands between investors; the issuer receives nothing from these trades. Secondary trading matters because liquidity makes primary issuance attractive - investors will buy new issues only if they can later sell them.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming the issuer benefits from every trade; once issued, shares trade purely between investors.
Introduction to investing, investments and financial markets
2. Money market versus capital market instruments
Money markets trade short-term, highly liquid debt such as bills and commercial paper, typically with maturities of a year or less, used for cash management. Capital markets trade longer-term instruments - shares and bonds - that finance investment. The distinction affects liquidity, price stability and return: money market instruments carry lower risk and lower expected returns than capital market securities.[1]
Common mistake: Treating all 'fixed income' as short-term; bonds are capital market instruments with materially more price risk.
Risk, return and time value calculations
3. The risk-return trade-off
Expected return rises with the risk the investor accepts, because investors demand compensation for uncertainty. This is a relationship about expectations, not guarantees: a higher-risk asset can and sometimes does underperform a safer one over a given period. Exam scenarios usually test whether you can identify which of two investments logically offers the higher expected return and why, without implying certainty of outcome.[1]
Common mistake: Reading 'higher risk means higher return' as a promise; it describes required expected compensation, not realised outcomes.
Risk, return and time value calculations
4. Systematic versus unsystematic risk and the limits of diversification
Unsystematic risk is specific to one company or industry - a product recall, a strike - and can be largely diversified away by holding many unrelated investments. Systematic risk is market-wide: recessions, rate shocks and geopolitical events hit most assets at once and cannot be removed by adding more securities. Diversification across many stocks reduces unsystematic risk only; combining different asset classes is needed to moderate systematic exposure.[1]
Common mistake: Believing a large number of holdings eliminates all risk; systematic risk remains regardless of how many securities are held.
Risk, return and time value calculations
5. Compounding and the time value of money
Money available today can be invested to earn returns, so it is worth more than the same nominal amount later. Future value grows multiplicatively: FV = PV x (1 + r)^n. Because growth compounds, small differences in rate or time produce large differences in outcome. Present value runs the logic backwards, discounting future cash flows to today's terms, which underpins bond and equity valuation throughout the module.[1]
Common mistake: Using simple rather than compound growth in calculations, or compounding the rate for the wrong number of periods.
Risk, return and time value calculations
6. Volatility as a measure of risk
Volatility, commonly proxied by standard deviation of returns, captures how widely returns fluctuate around their average. A higher standard deviation means outcomes are more dispersed - both good and bad. It is a symmetric, historical measure: it does not distinguish upside from downside swings and does not predict future risk. Candidates should be able to compare two funds' riskiness using volatility and recognise its limitations as a risk description.[1]
Common mistake: Equating volatility solely with losses; the measure captures dispersion in both directions and is backward looking.
Key drivers of market movements and asset values
7. Interest rates as the key driver of asset values
Interest rates are the discount rate applied to future cash flows, so they influence every asset class. When rates rise, the present value of any fixed stream of cash flows falls; this hits bond prices directly and pressures valuations of dividend-paying and growth shares. Rate changes also signal monetary policy stance, affecting borrowing costs, consumption and corporate profits. Rising rates therefore tend to depress asset prices broadly, all else equal.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming higher rates are uniformly bad; banks or investors holding cash may benefit, and the effect differs by asset type.
Key drivers of market movements and asset values
8. Inflation and purchasing power
Inflation erodes the real value of money, so a nominal return must be adjusted to reveal real purchasing power gained. An investment returning less than inflation loses value in real terms even though the nominal amount grows. Inflation also influences central bank policy: sustained high inflation typically prompts higher interest rates, which then feeds into bond and share valuations, linking this concept to rate-driven asset pricing.[1]
Common mistake: Judging returns in nominal terms only; comparing nominal return against inflation is essential for real-terms conclusions.
Key drivers of market movements and asset values
9. The business cycle and market behaviour
Economies move through expansion, peak, contraction and recovery phases, and corporate earnings, employment and credit conditions shift with them. Asset performance is cyclical: consumer discretionary and industrial firms are sensitive to downturns, while staples and utilities are comparatively defensive. Markets often price in expected changes before they appear in data, which is why share prices can move ahead of - or reverse despite - current economic readings.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming markets move one-for-one with today's economic data; expectations about the future typically drive prices first.
Foreign exchange
10. Currency pairs, quotations and spreads
FX is quoted as a pair: a base currency priced in units of a quote currency. Understanding which way a quote is expressed is essential, because the same rate can be stated as, say, SGD per USD or USD per SGD, inverting the number. Dealing rates show a bid (price at which the dealer buys the base) and an ask (price at which the dealer sells); the spread is a transaction cost embedded in every conversion.[1]
Common mistake: Reading the quote direction backwards; misidentifying the base versus quote currency inverts the arithmetic of gains and losses.
Foreign exchange
11. Unhedged foreign exchange exposure
A Singapore-based investor holding foreign-currency assets bears two return components: the asset's own performance and the currency movement when proceeds are converted back to SGD. If the foreign currency weakens, a positive asset return can become a negative home-currency return. Unless the exposure is hedged, currency movement is an unavoidable risk layer; hedging has costs, so it reduces rather than eliminates the economics of the trade-off.[1]
Common mistake: Evaluating a foreign investment's return without converting back to the investor's home currency.
Company analysis and understanding financial statements
12. How the three financial statements connect
The income statement reports performance over a period; the balance sheet snapshots assets, liabilities and equity at a date; the cash flow statement reconciles actual cash movements across operating, investing and financing activities. They interlock: net profit flows into retained earnings on the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement starts from profit but adjusts for non-cash items. Reading them together exposes whether reported profit is backed by cash.[1]
Common mistake: Treating profit as cash; accrual profit can diverge substantially from cash actually received in the period.
Company analysis and understanding financial statements
13. Using financial ratios for company analysis
Ratios convert raw statements into comparable measures: profitability ratios (such as net profit margin or return on equity) show operating efficiency; liquidity ratios (such as the current ratio) test short-term solvency; leverage ratios (such as debt-to-equity) reveal balance sheet risk. Ratios are most useful tracked over time or against industry peers, since a 'good' level depends heavily on the sector's business model and capital intensity.[1]
Common mistake: Interpreting ratios in isolation or without industry context; benchmark levels differ across industries and capital structures.
Equity securities
14. Shareholder rights and share characteristics
Ordinary shareholders own residual claims on the company: they vote on key matters, share in dividends when declared, and rank last in liquidation after creditors and preference holders. Equity is permanent capital with no maturity and no promised return - dividends are discretionary. Preference shares typically pay fixed dividends and rank ahead of ordinary shares, usually without full voting rights. Understanding ranking explains why equity carries the highest risk and return potential in the capital structure.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming dividends are contractual obligations; unlike bond coupons, declared dividends depend on board discretion and profitability.
Equity securities
15. Dividend yield versus capital gain
Total equity return has two parts: income (dividends) and capital appreciation (price change). Dividend yield divides the annual dividend by the current price, so the same dividend implies a higher yield when the price falls. A high yield can signal either attractive income or a market expecting dividend cuts, so it must be read alongside payout sustainability. Growth companies often pay little or no dividend, returning value through price appreciation instead.[1]
Common mistake: Chasing headline yield without checking whether earnings can sustain the dividend.
Equity securities
16. Relative valuation with earnings and book multiples
The price-to-earnings ratio expresses how much investors pay per dollar of current earnings; the price-to-book ratio compares market value with accounting net assets. Lower multiples may indicate cheapness - or justified pessimism about growth and risk. These are relative measures: they are meaningful mainly when comparing a company with peers, its own history, or the market, and they inherit any distortions in reported earnings or book values.[1]
Common mistake: Calling a low P/E 'cheap' without asking why the market awards it a discount relative to peers.
Deposits and fixed-income securities
17. The inverse bond price-yield relationship
A bond's coupons are fixed at issue, so when market yields change, the bond's price must move inversely to keep its total return competitive with new issues. Yields up mean prices down; yields down mean prices up. The effect is largest for long-dated, low-coupon bonds because their cash flows are discounted over longer horizons. This mechanism, not default, is the main source of day-to-day mark-to-market volatility in quality bonds.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming a bond held to maturity loses money when yields rise; a mark-to-market loss becomes a realised loss only if the bond is sold before redemption - if the issuer pays and the bond is held to maturity, the holder receives face value.
Deposits and fixed-income securities
18. Interest rate risk and duration
Duration measures a bond's price sensitivity to yield changes: roughly, a duration of 6 implies the price moves about 6% for a 1% yield change, approximately and for small moves. Longer maturity and lower coupons increase duration, hence sensitivity. Investors with short horizons face the risk of selling into a rate rise; holders to maturity care less about interim price swings. Matching duration to horizon is a core fixed-income decision.[1]
Common mistake: Confusing duration with maturity; two bonds with the same maturity can have very different durations depending on coupons.
Deposits and fixed-income securities
19. Credit risk and ratings
Credit risk is the danger that an issuer fails to pay coupons or principal on time. Rating agencies grade issuers and issues, with lower ratings signalling higher expected default risk; bonds below investment grade are commonly called high-yield. Additional yield over safer comparables compensates for this risk and for lower liquidity. Ratings are opinions that can change, so spread widening often precedes - and prices in - downgrades.[1]
Common mistake: Treating ratings as guarantees of repayment; they are risk assessments, and downgrades can occur suddenly.
Portfolio management
20. Asset allocation and correlation
Asset allocation - the split across equities, bonds, cash and other classes - drives most of a portfolio's risk and return behaviour. Diversification works best when holdings are imperfectly or negatively correlated, so losses in one asset are partly offset by stability or gains in another. Because asset classes differ in volatility and correlation shifts in crises, allocation must reflect the investor's horizon, needs and risk tolerance rather than chasing recent winners.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming correlations are constant; in stressed markets many risky assets can fall together, weakening diversification exactly when it is most wanted.
Portfolio management
21. Risk profiling and rebalancing
Suitable portfolio management starts with a risk profile: capacity to absorb loss (finances, horizon, obligations) and willingness to accept volatility (attitudes). Drift then matters - as markets move, the actual allocation strays from the target, changing the risk taken. Rebalancing restores the target mix, mechanically trimming what has risen and topping up what has fallen. Profiles should be revisited when circumstances change, not just prices.[1]
Common mistake: Measuring only willingness to take risk while ignoring financial capacity to bear losses.
Exchange traded funds, unit trusts, real estate investment trusts and insurance
22. Unit trusts: NAV, pricing and fees
A unit trust pools investors' money into a managed portfolio; units are created or cancelled at net asset value plus or minus sales charges, so price equals underlying portfolio value per unit. Ongoing fees (management, trustee, distribution) are deducted from the fund and compound against returns over time. Because units transact at NAV rather than on an exchange, liquidity depends on the manager's dealing arrangements, typically with once-daily pricing.[1]
Common mistake: Overlooking cumulative ongoing fees; even modest annual charges compound into a large drag over long horizons.
Exchange traded funds, unit trusts, real estate investment trusts and insurance
23. ETFs: passive exposure and tracking
An exchange traded fund typically tracks an index and trades continuously on an exchange at a market price, unlike a unit trust that transacts once daily at NAV. The market price can sit slightly above or below NAV, usually kept close by authorised participants. Key evaluation points are tracking difference versus the index, total expense ratio, liquidity and any currency exposure. ETFs give low-cost index exposure but still carry full market risk.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming index investing means no risk or no losses; the ETF faithfully delivers the index's downside as well as its upside.
Exchange traded funds, unit trusts, real estate investment trusts and insurance
24. REITs: structure and income characteristics
A REIT pools investor money into income-producing real estate - offices, retail malls, industrial parks - professionally managed, typically by an external manager. REITs generate rental income and, in Singapore, distribute most of their taxable income to unitholders to preserve tax transparency, giving them an income-oriented return profile. Their prices still fluctuate with interest rates, property fundamentals and occupancy, so REITs are not bond substitutes despite the income stream.[1]
Common mistake: Treating REIT distributions like guaranteed bond coupons; distributions depend on rental income and can be cut when property conditions weaken.
Exchange traded funds, unit trusts, real estate investment trusts and insurance
25. Indemnity versus fixed-benefit insurance
General insurance (for property, motor, liability) is largely indemnity-based: the payout aims to restore the insured's actual loss, subject to policy limits, excesses and conditions - and typically cannot exceed the loss. Many life and personal accident policies instead pay fixed, pre-agreed sums upon defined events, regardless of actual financial loss, provided contractual conditions are met. Confusing these two payout logics leads clients to misjudge what a policy will actually deliver.[1]
Common mistake: Assuming indemnity applies to all insurance; fixed-benefit life policies pay pre-agreed sums that are not capped by the insured's actual loss.
Warrants
26. Warrant gearing and leverage
A warrant is a right, without obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) an underlying share at a fixed strike before expiry, traded at a fraction of the share price. Gearing measures underlying exposure per dollar invested: underlying price divided by warrant price. High gearing amplifies percentage gains and losses on the capital committed, making warrants materially riskier than holding the share outright, with the full premium at risk.[1]
Common mistake: Comparing warrant percentage moves with share percentage moves without accounting for gearing and time decay.
Warrants
27. Warrant time value and expiry
A warrant's price combines intrinsic value (any amount by which the underlying is favourably placed versus the strike) and time value, which reflects the chance of favourable movement before expiry. Time value erodes as expiry approaches, a decay that accelerates near the end. At expiry, only intrinsic value remains: an out-of-the-money warrant expires worthless. Consequently, warrants are trading instruments with defined horizons, not long-term buy-and-hold substitutes for shares.[1]
Common mistake: Buying long-dated conviction in the underlying via short-dated warrants; time decay can lose money even when the share direction is eventually right.
Technical analysis and quantitative analysis
28. Trends, support and resistance
Technical analysis studies price and volume patterns to gauge supply and demand. An uptrend is a sequence of higher highs and higher lows; a downtrend the reverse. Support is a price zone where buying has repeatedly halted declines; resistance is where selling has repeatedly capped advances. Breaks through these zones can signal a change in the balance of power, though such signals are probabilistic and can fail, which is why technicians manage risk rather than predict certainties.[1]
Common mistake: Treating chart levels as precise guarantees; support and resistance are zones whose breaks frequently fail.
Technical analysis and quantitative analysis
29. Moving averages and technical versus fundamental analysis
A moving average smooths price data over a chosen window, revealing trend direction; crossovers between short and long averages are used as trend-change signals. Fundamentally different from fundamental analysis, technical analysis ignores financial statements and intrinsic value, focusing on price behaviour itself. The two can conflict: a chart may signal momentum while fundamentals flag overvaluation. Neither approach guarantees outcomes, and practitioners often combine them with risk limits.[1]
Common mistake: Believing technical signals alone prove future direction; they describe pattern probabilities, not certainties.
Case studies
30. Case study discipline: matching products to the investor
Case study questions integrate product knowledge with suitability logic: establish the client's objective, horizon, liquidity needs and capacity to bear loss, then test each candidate product against those facts. Common traps include recommending illiquid or volatile products to short-horizon or conservative clients, ignoring currency exposure, and treating high past returns as evidence of future suitability. The reasoning chain - profile, then product, then risks disclosed - matters as much as the product chosen.[1]
Common mistake: Starting from the product and retrofitting the client; suitability reasoning runs from client profile to product, never the reverse.
How to revise for CM-EIP
1. Stage 1: Map the syllabus and secure the current study guide
Register for CM-EIP, download the current PDF study guide from the IBF Portal, and check the IBF study guide update page for the latest version before you start. Build a topic checklist from the twelve syllabus domains so every revision hour maps to an assessed area, and note that your study guide access expires on your exam day, so plan reading before then.
2. Stage 2: Master the quantitative foundations first
Risk-return, volatility, compounding, present and future value underpin later topics (bonds, valuation, FX returns). Practise FV = PV x (1+r)^n and discounting by hand until calculations are automatic, using clearly hypothetical rates. Errors here cascade into bond pricing and case study questions, so drill these before touching product topics.
3. Stage 3: Work through asset classes in the syllabus order
Study equities, deposits and fixed income, then funds (unit trusts, ETFs, REITs), warrants and FX as distinct blocks. For each product, write one line on structure, one on pricing, one on the dominant risk. Actively compare pairs - ETF versus unit trust, bond versus REIT, share versus warrant - because exam questions reward recognising differences, not reciting definitions.
4. Stage 4: Build linkages across drivers and portfolio logic
Create a one-page diagram connecting interest rates to bond prices, inflation to real returns, and the business cycle to sector behaviour, then link diversification, correlation and rebalancing to how portfolios actually respond. These cross-topic chains are where integrated questions live; being able to trace 'rate rises, bond prices fall, equity valuations compress' in one line is high-yield revision.
5. Stage 5: Drill case studies and mixed scenarios under time pressure
Practise client-profile scenarios: identify objective, horizon, liquidity and risk capacity before naming a suitable or unsuitable product, and articulate why. Time yourself on 90-question-style mixed sets to simulate the 2.5-hour pace (about 100 seconds per question). Mark yourself strictly, then re-study every wrong answer's underlying syllabus domain rather than just the answer key.
6. Stage 6: Final week consolidation and logistics
Re-read your weakest three domains, retest the self-check scenarios in this guide, and re-verify exam-day details - venue, timing, ID requirements and any current IBF announcements - since fees, versions and procedures change. Confirm your portal access for the result slip, sleep on schedule, and avoid new material in the final 48 hours; consolidation beats cramming for a concept-recall format like this.
Test your understanding
These original learning scenarios are for revision; they are not official examination questions.
1. A Singapore-based investor converts S$100,000 into US dollars at a rate of 1.35 SGD per USD and buys a US bond. A year later the bond has returned exactly 0% in USD terms, and the exchange rate has moved to 1.30 SGD per USD. Ignoring transaction costs, approximately what is the investor's return in SGD, and what risk does this illustrate?
Show answer and explanation
The investor bought about US$74,074 (100,000 / 1.35). Converting back at 1.30 yields about S$96,296, a loss of roughly 3.7% in SGD despite zero return on the bond itself. This illustrates unhedged foreign exchange exposure: the home-currency return combines asset performance with currency movement, and a weakening USD turns a flat investment into a loss.[1]
2. An investor holds 30 different SGX-listed large-cap shares and says the portfolio is now safe because it is fully diversified. A sharp regional recession then causes nearly all holdings to fall together. Which risk did diversification fail to remove, and what would have moderated it?
Show answer and explanation
Diversification removed unsystematic (company-specific) risk but not systematic risk - the market-wide risk that a recession poses to most equities at once. Adding more Singapore large-cap shares cannot fix this because their correlations are high in a downturn. Broadening across asset classes with lower correlation, such as bonds or cash, would have moderated the systematic exposure, though no allocation eliminates it.[1]
3. A bond with a fixed hypothetical 3% annual coupon and eight years to maturity is trading near its S$100 face value. Market yields on comparable bonds rise from 3% to 4%. What happens to the bond's market price, why, and would a shorter-maturity bond with the same coupon be affected more or less?
Show answer and explanation
The bond's price falls below S$100. Its coupon is fixed at 3%, so it is only competitive if its price drops until a buyer's overall yield matches the new 4% market rate - the inverse price-yield relationship. A shorter-maturity bond would be affected less, because its cash flows are received sooner and are less sensitive to the discount-rate change (lower duration).[1]
Frequently asked questions
What is the CM-EIP exam and who needs to take it?
CM-EIP is the CMFAS product knowledge module on Excluded Investment Products - securities, collective investment schemes and foreign exchange. Under the CMFAS framework, candidates pursuing activities such as dealing in securities or units in collective investment schemes, or fund management (with RES 3), take CM-EIP as the product knowledge component alongside the required Rules, Ethics and Skills module. Check the IBF module finder for the exact combination for your intended activity.[1]
What is the format and pass mark for CM-EIP?
The exam consists of 90 multiple-choice questions taken on computer over 2.5 hours, with a pass mark of 70%. Results appear on screen immediately after the exam, and candidates can print result slips from their IBF Portal account from the next business day.[1]
How do I get the CM-EIP study guide and which version should I use?
After registering, candidates receive PDF access to the study guide through the IBF Portal; access expires on the day of the registered examination. IBF updates study guides periodically - the CM-EIP guide had a listed update in November 2024 - so always confirm you are studying the latest version via the IBF study guide updates page before sitting the exam.[2]
What is the difference between CM-EIP, CM-SIP and CM-CMP?
CM-EIP covers excluded investment products (securities, excluded collective investment schemes and foreign exchange), while CM-SIP covers specified investment products, namely derivatives and specified collective investment schemes (including structured products such as structured notes and structured funds). CM-CMP is a combined module whose syllabus draws on both CM-EIP and CM-SIP; per the IBF register page there is no separate CM-CMP study guide. Which module you need depends on your regulated activity and principal, and exemption lists are set out in MAS Notice SFA 04-N22.[1]
Does passing CM-EIP licence me to advise or deal in securities?
No. CM-EIP is one module within the CMFAS examination regime. After successfully completing the relevant module combination, candidates must lodge a notification with the Monetary Authority of Singapore before carrying out regulated activities. Passing an exam module alone does not confer a licence, registration or professional designation, and there are no exemptions from the paired Rules, Ethics and Skills exams.[1]
Official sources and review notes
Public IBF and SCI sources were checked on 16 September 2026 for syllabus scope and assessment details, with additional primary references where listed. References identify the relevant syllabus or subject source; explanations and examples are original teaching material. This guide selects important concepts and does not replace the full official study text. Confirm the applicable edition and any updates with the administrator before your assessment.