Level I · 2026 curriculum · 6–9% of the exam

Corporate Issuers

Corporate Issuers looks at how companies are organised, governed and financed, and how they decide which investments to make.

What the questions cover

• Organisational forms, stakeholders and conflicts of interest
• Corporate governance and ESG considerations
• Working capital and liquidity management
• Capital investment decisions: NPV, IRR and capital allocation
• Capital structure theories and the factors that shape them
• Business models, and operating and financial leverage

How to study it

• Know when NPV and IRR disagree and why NPV is preferred.
• Governance questions often ask which mechanism best reduces a given conflict; match the mechanism to the parties.