CBA-CRP · Management
Certification scheme
The complete specification for CBA Certified Compliance & Risk Professional: what is assessed, how the paper is built, what the credential requires, and how it is maintained.
Scheme version 7.1. Every credential records the scheme version in force on the day it was awarded, so a holder remains traceable to the standard they met after this document changes.
1. The credential
- Title
- CBA Certified Compliance & Risk Professional
- Code
- CBA-CRP
- Field
- Management
- Level
- Professional. Written examination, assessed applied work, and professional experience confirmed by a named referee.
- Validity
- 3 years from the date of award, then renewal against evidenced continuing professional development. See CPD and renewal.
2. What is assessed
The blueprint fixes each domain’s share of the paper. Weightings are published and every paper is assembled to them, so the composition of the examination is known to a candidate in advance and is the same for everyone.
| Domain | Weighting | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance Risk Assessment | 20% | 15 |
| Programme Governance, Policies and Controls | 22% | 16 |
| Financial Crime and Data Protection Fundamentals | 20% | 15 |
| Monitoring, Testing and Investigations | 22% | 16 |
| Reporting, Culture and Improvement | 16% | 12 |
| Total | 100% | 75 |
The domain counts above are the floor of each weighting applied to 75 questions. The remaining 1 question is allocated to the domains whose weightings lose the most to rounding, so the paper always totals exactly 75.
3. The examination
- Questions
- 75
- Duration
- 115 minutes
- Format
- Single best answer from four options. Every question carries equal weight.
- Delivery
- Online. Unanswered questions score zero.
- Pass mark
- Set by standard setting
- Assembly
- Each paper is drawn at random from the live item bank to the weightings above, so two candidates sitting the same certification do not receive the same paper.
- Attempts
- 1 attempt per voucher. There is no limit on the number of vouchers and no waiting period between attempts.
- Voucher validity
- 12 months from purchase.
4. Requirements beyond the examination
- Assessed applied work
- 6 workbooks completed to the published tolerance. Each is a spreadsheet built from a case organisation’s data, and the figures submitted are checked automatically.
- Professional experience
- 3 years relevant to this discipline, or 2 where a relevant degree is held. Experience need not be continuous or with one employer.
- Referee
- Experience is confirmed by a named referee who knows the work, normally a line manager, client or partner. An unverified self-declaration is not accepted.
- Ethics
- The Code of Professional Conduct is accepted before the award is issued, and binds the holder thereafter.
A Professional credential cannot be issued until the experience record is verified, whatever the examination result. The two run in parallel and the award follows the later of them. Submit a declaration.
5. Quality assurance
- Every examination item is reviewed and signed off by a named subject-matter expert before it can appear in a live paper. An item with no recorded reviewer cannot be activated.
- The items in each domain are audited for answer cueing before use.
- Cut scores are set by a documented standard-setting panel working from the items themselves, and the method is recorded with the result. See how cut scores are set.
- Where an item is later found to be defective, every candidate whose result it affected is re-marked without it. See complaints and appeals.
6. Changes to this scheme
A change that alters what the credential means raises the scheme version. A candidate is assessed against the version in force on the day they sit, and a credential already awarded is never retrospectively altered by a later version. Where a change is substantial, it is published before it takes effect and existing candidates are given notice.