Corporate Issuers

Summary, Syllabus, Topics, and Sample Questions (L1, L2, L3)

The CFA® exam Corporate issuers topic covers assessing corporate governance and understanding how companies make investing and financing decisions. Many academic studies have shown that effective governance is highly correlated with overall financial performance. Environment, social, and governance (ESG) factors have become increasingly important concerns for investors and companies have taken notice. Therefore, evaluating how these factors affect a company’s bottom line is critical to increasing long-term shareholder value and making management decisions regarding financing and investment.

Financial analysts must cultivate the ability to identify the risks and investment opportunities associated with short-and long-term financing options and techniques. This enables management to make effective use of leverage and working capital in their daily decisions.

This topic also covers the effects of mergers and acquisitions on corporate structures and the relative value and benefit to all parties involved.

Candidates will find that the content covered in Corporate Issuers is interwoven with material from Financial Statements Analysis and Quantitative Methods. Despite its relatively low weighting, Corporate Issuers’ concepts are at the core of corporate finance throughout the CFA Program.


Study Tips for Corporate Issuers

  • Foundational Knowledge: Learn the material well, since the practice of sourcing and using capital is what creates capital market. Most of the CFA curriculum, at all levels, eventually gets back to understanding them.
  • Calculator proficiency: You are guaranteed to come across NPV questions. Learn how to use your calculator's requisite functions efficiently.
  • Formulae Concepts: CFA Level 1 Corporate Issuers covers many formulae, but the CFAI will test your understanding and make sure that you aren’t just crunching numbers.

Visit our CFA Level 1 Study Guide and CFA Level 2 Study Guide for more information.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Corporate issuers is often considered an easier CFA topic. The formulae are quite intuitive and the concepts are largely based on material covered in other topics. However, the relative ease of Corporate Issuers depends on the candidate’s understanding of those borrowed concepts: CAPM model (Portfolio Management), TVM (Quantitative Methods), and financial ratios (Financial Statements Analysis).

After moving through a QBank the best method to monitor your current understanding of the content is by taking Mock exams. UWorld’s mock exams closely replicate the actual CFA exam experience to help you prepare and boost your confidence on test day. Like the actual CFA exam, our mock exams consist of two 2-hour, 15-minute sessions, each with 90 multiple-choice questions spanning multiple subjects and not included in the standard QBank.

The best way to study for the exam is practicing with a QBank with a QBank across all chapters and readings. The UWorld CFA QBank offers over 220 questions and detailed explanations covering Corporate Issuers.
Yes, the CFA charter is useful for corporate issuers–and vice versa. Candidates will study the fundamentals of evaluating a company’s investing and financing decisions in the CFA Level Corporate Issuers topic. The remaining CFA topics either provide a foundation for or expand upon the knowledge gained in the Corporate Issuers topic.

Other CFA Exam Topics

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