CISI Global Securities Operations study guide
CISI Global Securities Operations · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The CISI Global Securities Operations (GSO) qualification is a professional certification from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment aimed at people who work - or want to work - in the back and middle office of securities businesses. It suits settlement analysts, custody and asset servicing staff, reconciliations and controls officers, trade support teams, and operations staff at banks, brokers, fund managers and custodians, including those moving from retail or advisory roles into operations. The CISI Global Securities Operations study guide has 9 sections and about 3,615 words.
01The Financial Services Industry and the Securities Market Environment
This domain checks that you can place every institution in the trade lifecycle and distinguish primary from secondary markets, exchange-traded from OTC activity, and the separate roles of trading, clearing and settlement infrastructure. Issuers raise capital via IPOs, placings, rights issues and bond issuance.
417 words, about 2 min02Trade Execution, Confirmation and Affirmation
This domain covers the journey from order to matched instruction: order handling and best execution, block allocation, confirmation, affirmation, matching against standing settlement instructions (SSIs), and exception management before the settlement date. Order types include market, limit, stop and iceberg; time-in-force variants include day, GTC and IOC.
419 words, about 2 min03Clearing, Settlement and the Settlement Cycle
Here the exam tests the mechanics of clearing versus settlement, the current settlement cycles by market, delivery-versus-payment, matching and fails handling under settlement discipline regimes. Novation : the CCP interposes itself between buyer and seller, becoming counterparty to each side.
391 words, about 2 min04Custody, Asset Servicing and Corporate Actions
This domain tests the custodian's safekeeping, income and corporate action obligations, the classification of events, the key dates that drive entitlement, and the election mechanics that make voluntary events operationally risky. A global custodian holds assets through a network of sub-custodians or as a direct participant in a CSD.
422 words, about 2 min05Payments, Cash Management and Foreign Exchange in Securities Operations
The exam tests payment systems and message flows, correspondent banking and nostro funding, value dates and cut-offs, FX instruments and settlement risk, and how FX mismatches create funding and settlement failures. RTGS systems (CHAPS, Fedwire, T2) settle high-value, time-critical payments in central bank money; ACH/SEPA handle high-volume, low-value credit transfers.
376 words, about 2 min06Reconciliation, Controls and Operational Risk Management
This domain tests the mechanics of reconciliation, the design of preventive and detective controls, and operational risk frameworks including the three lines of defence, RCSA and incident management. Types: cash, stock/position, inter-system, inter-company and client money reconciliations.
413 words, about 2 min07Regulatory and Compliance Framework for Securities Operations
The exam tests which rules bite on operational activity: transaction reporting, record keeping, client asset protection, settlement discipline, market abuse controls and senior management accountability across UK, EU and US regimes. MiFID II/MiFIR (and the UK onshored equivalents): best execution, transaction reporting, clock synchronisation, record keeping.
388 words, about 2 min08Client Onboarding, KYC and Anti-Money Laundering in Operations
This domain tests the risk-based approach to customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, screening and monitoring, and the operational controls that keep onboarding defensible under FATF standards and local AML rules. CDD : identify the client, verify identity using reliable independent sources, understand the purpose and intended nature of the relationship.
393 words, about 2 min09Technology, Data and Operational Resilience
This domain tests the systems and data that run securities operations, the standards for reference and market data, and the operational resilience obligations to identify important business services and stay within impact tolerances. Core platforms include order management, settlement and custody processing, corporate actions, reconciliation and static data.
396 words, about 2 min