Institute of Risk Management · RQF Level 5
IRM's Level 5 International Certificate in Financial Services Risk Management
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 5
- Total credits36
- Guided learning60 hours
- Units in this qualification12
Awarded by Institute of Risk Management · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
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What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
This Level 5 certificate from IRM develops knowledge of financial services risk management. It covers risk culture, corporate governance, regulation, and operational and financial risk. It is intended for individuals working in, or aspiring to work in, the financial services sector.
These are the units Institute of Risk Management registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Corporate governance and risk assuranceReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine different corporate governance models of organisations
- Understand the impact that board structures have on organisations' approaches to risk management
- Examine the regulatory influences on risk management of organisations
- Examine the roles and responsibilities of the board for risk management
- Understand the role and purpose of internal and external assurance on the control of risks in organisations
Financial RiskReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine the approaches used to manage liquidity risk in the financial services sector
- Examine the approaches used to quantify liquidity risk in the financial services sector
- Examine the approaches used to manage credit risk in the financial services sector
- Examine the approaches used to quantify credit risk in the financial services sector
- Examine the approaches used to manage market risk in the financial services sector
- Examine the approaches used to quantify market risk in the financial services sector
- Examine the approaches used in Value at Risk calculation
- Understand the limitations around internal models for risk management
- Understand the regulatory requirements around internal models for risk management
- Examine the approaches used to manage insurance risk
- Examine the approaches used to quantify insurance risk
Introducing Operational Risk in the Financial Services SectorReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the influence of operational risk on the financial services sector
- Understand the regulatory requirements for the management of operational risk in the financial services sector
- Understand the assessment methods used in managing operational risk in the financial services sector
- Understand the quantification of operational risk in the financial services sector
- Understand the role of loss data consortiums in the management of operational risk
Key concepts in risk managementReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Compare and contrast the core concepts of risk and risk management, utilising a range of different recognised approaches and perspectives.
- Examine the key developments and milestones in the evolution of risk management as a discipline and practice.
- Understand the significant influence of enterprise risk management (ERM) on an organisation's strategic planning, governance structures, and overall resilience to potential disruptions.
- Review the approaches to and integrations of different risk management specialisms (e.g., financial risk, operational risk, compliance risk) within an organisation's broader risk management framework.
- Examine different international risk management standards and approaches, such as ISO 31000 and COSO, and their application in various organisational settings.
Managing, monitoring and reporting risksReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Establish the criteria that define a real and effective control in the context of managing risks within an organisation.
- Understand how to evaluate the effectiveness of existing controls in order to determine the extent to which risks are being adequately managed.
- Understand the processes and techniques involved in monitoring risks to ensure they remain within acceptable levels.
- Distinguish between the specific risks, controls, and underlying processes that require review and improvement within an organisation's risk management framework.
- Examine the methods and channels used for reporting risks to both internal and external stakeholders, ensuring transparency and accountability.
- Understand how different risk decision-making styles within an organisation are linked to its overall risk appetite, risk tolerance levels, and prevailing risk culture.
Regulation in Financial ServicesReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Investigate the nature of financial services regulation
- Investigate the purpose of financial services regulation
- Investigate the general structure of financial services regulation
- Examine the financial services regulatory framework
- Examine the responsibilities of regulators within the financial services sector
- Examine the key regulations in the financial services sector
- Examine the key regulators in the financial services sector
- Investigate the application of the three pillars to the financial services sector
- Examine the application of global regulation to the financial services
ResilienceReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine the role of risk management in achieving and maintaining organisational resilience.
- Examine the potential disruptors that an organisation may face.
- Understand the role of risk management in supporting agility and innovation within organisations.
- Determine the most appropriate risk management tools to test the resilience of an organisation.
- Understand the purpose and content of organisations' viability statements.
Risk context, objectives and assessmentReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine an organisation's internal and external contexts, including its strategic objectives and operating environment.
- Understand the importance of framing objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) in relation to risk management.
- Examine the risks faced by an organisation using risk articulation and risk identification techniques.
- Establish the significance of the identified risks, linked to risk appetite and tolerance, using a variety of techniques.
Risk culture and appetiteReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the value of risk culture for organisations
- Examine the influence of people on the risk culture of an organisation
- Examine the risk culture model of an organisation
- Understand how to measure a successful risk culture of an organisation
- Examine the risk appetite, risk tolerance and capacity of an organisation
- Examine risk appetite statements of organisations
- Examine the risk appetite criteria and trigger points of an organisation and how these are monitored
Specific Operational Risks in the Financial Services SectorReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Investigate cyber security risks in the financial service sector
- Investigate data security risks in the financial service sector
- Examine outsourcing risk in the financial services sector
- Examine third-party risk in the financial services sector
- Investigate operational resilience risk in the financial services sector
- Investigate customer risk in the financial services sector
- Investigate consumer risk in the financial services sector
- Understand other material risks in the banking sector
- Understand other material risks in the insurance sectors
Strategic planning for Enterprise Risk ManagementReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Examine the fundamental principles and key attributes that underpin effective risk management practices within organisations.
- Develop a comprehensive and effective risk management strategy tailored to the specific needs and objectives of an organisation.
- Understand the various stages and components of risk management processes, from identification and assessment to mitigation and monitoring.
SustainabilityReal unit · Institute of Risk Management
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the role of risk management in ensuring organisational sustainability.
- Examine the evolution of sustainability as a business concept.
- Understand the role of risk management in enabling the sustainability of an organisation's operations and strategy.
- Understand the impact of climate change risk management on an organisation and its stakeholders.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 5 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Assess business strategy and commercial risks that a Training and Competence Scheme must address
- Assess risks for a financial services organisation
- Assess, Analyse and Evaluate Risks
- Contribute to information security related business resilience activities
- Determine the organisation’s approach to risk
- Develop a risk profile for a financial services organisation
- Develop and maintain relationships relevant to risk management in a financial services organisation
- Ensure an effective risk architecture is in place for a financial services organisation
Where this can lead
Resilience Manager
Your journey here is about continuous growth. We're not just offering a job; we're offering a career where you can genuinely protect the business and grow into a recognised expert in a critical field. The path is yours to shape, and we'll be here to support you every step of the way.
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 366 job records mapped to this qualification.
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
Learners will examine various corporate governance models and their impact on organisational risk management. The unit covers board structures, regulatory influences, and the roles and responsibilities of boards in overseeing risk assurance.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for IRM's Level 5 International Certificate in Financial Services Risk Management
12 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Institute of Risk Management.
- Corporate governance and risk assurance
- Financial Risk
- Introducing Operational Risk in the Financial Services Sector
- Key concepts in risk management
- Managing, monitoring and reporting risks
- Regulation in Financial Services
and 6 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.