RIMS

RIMS, the risk management society, runs a deliberately small certification portfolio: the RIMS-CRMP (Certified Risk Management Professional) and its federal add-on, the RIMS-CRMP-FED. The CRMP is the flagship, and it carries a distinction no competing designation has - it is accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board under ISO/IEC 17024:2012, which RIMS states makes it the only accredited risk management certification in the world. It is competency-based rather than textbook-based, with more than 1,900 holders across 77 countries, and RIMS' compensation survey data puts certified risk professionals at $16,000 more in annual US median base salary than non-holders.

Eligibility runs on experience-education combinations: a bachelor's degree in risk management plus 1 year of full-time risk management experience, a non-RM bachelor's plus 3 years, or 6 years of experience with no degree. Final-year students in an RM degree program can also sit the exam. The exam fee is $375 for RIMS members and $525 for non-members (both include a $100 non-refundable application fee), for a 120-question, 2-hour computer-based test at Pearson VUE or via OnVUE remote proctoring. The credential is valid for 2 years; recertification requires 50 continuing education points per cycle (35 of them in professional development) plus a $150 member or $200 non-member fee.

CertCompanion carries practice banks for both credentials: 807 questions for the RIMS-CRMP and 850 for the CRMP-FED, each with 30 free questions so you can gauge difficulty before committing. The CRMP bank mirrors the exam blueprint's weighting, so Implementing Risk Process (32% of scored items) and Designing Organizational Risk Strategies (26%) get the practice volume the real exam gives them, with scenario-style questions rather than definition recall.

If you work in or sell into US federal agencies, the CRMP-FED is the differentiator. Developed with AFERM, it is a microcredential that requires passing the core CRMP and adds a 1-hour, 50-question scored block on federal ERM - OMB Circular A-123, A-11 Part 6, GAO and NIST guidance - for a 170-item, 3-hour combined sitting. Both credentials are recognized in the Department of Defense COOL programs, which makes them fundable for transitioning service members heading into agency risk roles.