CeMAP FRE1 Exam Guide: Format and How to Pass

6 min read · facts checked 11 Oct 2026

FRE1 (Industry, Regulation and Key Parties) is one of the five units of the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice in the structure Walbrook introduced on 30 September 2025. It sits in the FSRE (Financial Services, Regulation and Ethics) module. You sit it online, on demand, under remote invigilation, and you need 28 out of 40 (70%) to pass.

The FRE1 exam at a glance

What the syllabus covers

• The UK financial services industry: markets, institutions, the Bank of England, monetary and fiscal policy.
• Retail consumers' needs: saving, borrowing, protection and retirement, and how they are met.
• Legal concepts: legal persons, contract, agency, property ownership, trusts, insolvency, wills and intestacy, powers of attorney.
• How regulation developed, from self-regulation to FSMA 2000, the FCA and PRA, and the Consumer Duty.
• The FCA and PRA Handbook: the Principles, SM&CR, authorisation, enforcement and the main sourcebooks.

Where candidates lose marks

• Using an old figure: the intestacy statutory legacy is £322,000 for deaths on or after 26 July 2023, and the FSCS deposit limit is £120,000 from 1 December 2025.
• Mixing up joint tenants and tenants in common, or forgetting that severance needs written notice.
• Confusing the FCA's and PRA's objectives, or who approves senior managers and who certifies staff.
• Treating a lasting power of attorney as usable before it is registered.

How to prepare

• Learn the regulatory timeline as a list of dates and drill it.
• Practise the case-study format: read the scenario first, then test each question against it.
• Do one timed 40-question mock a week in the last month.

Walbrook sets the official syllabus and can change it. Check the current unit specification in your Brightspace account before you sit.