The FRM — Financial Risk Manager — has been on a sustained upswing for fifteen years. According to figures published by GARP (Global Association of Risk Professionals), exam registrations have grown by approximately 10% per year between 2010 and 2025.
This is no passing trend. It reflects deep transformations in finance and in the role that risk management plays within it.
A trajectory that's accelerating
10% per year over fifteen years means roughly a fourfold increase in the annual candidate base.
Growth is not geographically uniform. It's particularly strong in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East — two regions where expanding capital markets and progressively more sophisticated prudential frameworks are driving structural demand for professionals trained in risk management.
A strong signal of this dynamic: starting in 2025, GARP offers the FRM exam in Simplified Chinese in mainland China for the first time. It's the result of a strategic opening to the Chinese market, where local demand has crossed a critical threshold. For an Anglo-Saxon certification historically delivered exclusively in English, this is a paradigm shift.
Why now? Three structural forces
The FRM's momentum doesn't come from nowhere. Three forces converge.
1. The post-2008 regulatory tightening
The 2008 crisis triggered a global overhaul of the prudential framework. Basel III, then Basel IV, imposed unprecedented capital and risk management requirements on banks. IFRS 9 transformed credit loss provisioning. Stress tests — EBA, ECB, Fed — became annual structural exercises, mobilizing dedicated teams across every major institution.
On the insurance side, Solvency II made the ORSA (Own Risk and Solvency Assessment) a governance pillar. On the asset management side, requirements around fund liquidity risk and stress testing have multiplied.
Direct consequence: the risk function moved from quiet back-office to strategic function. In banks, insurers, and now fintechs, risk departments sit on the executive committee, dialogue with regulators, and weigh in on major strategic trade-offs.
This rise in stature creates a pull effect for professionals trained in measuring and managing risk — exactly the profile the FRM produces.
2. The FRM as a global benchmark alongside the CFA
For a long time, the reference certification in finance was a single one: the CFA. Generalist, broad-spectrum, universally recognized. But as the risk function grew more complex, the need for a specialized certification became unavoidable.
The FRM fills exactly that niche. Where the CFA covers ten domains, the FRM concentrates all its engineering on risk — quantitative, market, credit, operational, liquidity. For a professional who knows they want to work in risk, it's a sharper signal than a generalist title.
Today, in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Dubai, the CFA + FRM combination has become a standard for ambitious risk-track profiles. And for those targeting risk roles exclusively, the FRM alone is now perfectly legitimate.
3. New risks broaden the career landscape
The risk function's perimeter has expanded dramatically over the last decade. Four fronts in particular.
Cyber risk. Now a major operational risk category since DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) in Europe. Risk departments are hiring profiles who can quantify cyber exposure and integrate it into prudential risk frameworks.
Climate risk. ECB climate stress tests, supervisory expectations on integrating climate into credit and market risk, SFDR/CSRD requirements. The FRM Part II curriculum now explicitly includes climate in its Current Issues module.
Model risk. With the AI and machine learning explosion in finance (scoring, pricing, transaction monitoring), model governance has become a top-tier topic. The FRM provides the methodological foundation to frame this emerging discipline.
Liquidity risk. Brought back into focus by the Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse episodes in 2023, liquidity risk has regained a centrality forgotten since 2008. Regulators are tightening requirements; institutions are reinforcing their teams.
Each new front is a new pool of jobs — and each new job is looking for an FRM or equivalent.
The two-part program
The FRM is taken in two consecutive exams.
Part I — fundamentals. Four areas: foundations of risk management, quantitative analysis, financial markets and products, valuation and risk models. The technical foundation.
Part II — application. Six areas: market risk, credit risk, operational risk and resilience, liquidity and treasury risk, risk management and investment management, current issues in financial markets. The shift to operational practice, with a regularly updated current issues module covering the new risks above.
GARP recommends 240 hours of preparation per part, on average, over 6 to 9 months.
The careers the FRM opens up
Seven role types come up consistently: risk analyst, risk manager, credit risk analyst, market risk analyst, regulatory risk analyst, operational risk manager, and at the top, chief risk officer (CRO).
All these roles existed before 2008. The difference in 2026: their relative weight in organizations has grown sharply, salary envelopes too, and recruiting has become more selective. An FRM is now a tangible signal of differentiation for these positions.
Preparing for the FRM today
Top Finance prepares both parts of the FRM in a format that combines structured sessions, pre-exam bootcamp, Kaplan Schweser QBank access, and a dedicated success coach. 87% pass rate on Part I across Top Finance sessions, against a global average around 45%.
For professionals who want to join the global FRM dynamic in 2026, the timing is right. Demand for risk profiles will continue to rise, the certification will continue to gain in recognition, and those who position themselves first will capture the best opportunities.