HOW TO EARN THE INVESTOR RELATIONS CHARTER 

To earn the Investor Relations Charter (IRC)®, applicants must meet each of the following four requirements:

1) Pass the IRC examination.
 
2) Meet one of the following educational and professional work experience options:
OPTION 1: U.S. bachelor’s degree or equivalent with three or more years of qualifying full-time work experience as an IR corporate professional or IR counselor.
OPTION 2: Six years of qualifying full-time work experience as an IR corporate professional or IR counselor.
OPTION 3: Hold a current certification relevant to IR practice with three or more years of qualifying full-time work experience as an IR corporate professional or IR counselor.
 
3) Achieve at least seven of the following ten IR domains of practice with a publicly traded company as an IR corporate professional or IR counselor:

Domain 1: IR Strategy Formulation Domain 6: Business Insight
Domain 2: IR Planning, Implementation and Measurement Domain 7: Strategic Counsel and Collaboration
Domain 3: Corporate Messaging Development Domain 8: Capital Markets and Capital Structure
Domain 4: Investor Marketing and Outreach Domain 9: Corporate Regulatory Compliance
Domain 5: Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis Domain 10: Corporate Governance

 4) Comply with the NIRI Code of Ethics and the IRC Code of Conduct.

RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE

 At least 50% of duties should be directly focused on IR activities. Alternate work experience and paid IR internships will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

NIRI membership is not a prerequisite for certification.

RELEVANT CERTIFICATIONS

Relevant Certifications to the investor relations practice include:
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
• Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
• Other certifications may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

Based on the eligibility option selected, one or more of the following documents must be submitted with the completed and signed exam application:

  • Current resume or curriculum vitae (CV) with detailed information about the IR qualifying work experience (required from all applicants).
  • Verification of work experience form or written statement from human resources department confirming the IR work experience stated in the application.

EXAMINATION BLUEPRINT

 
Domain Percentage of items Number of items
1. IR Strategy Formulation 14% 25
2. IR Planning, Implementation and Measurement 11% 20
3. Corporate Messaging Development 14% 25
4. Investor Marketing and Outreach 13% 24
5. Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis 11% 20
6. Business Insight 8% 14
7. Strategic Counsel and Collaboration 8% 14
8. Capital Markets and capital Structure 9% 16
9. Corporate Regulatory Compliance 6% 11
10. Corporate Governance 6% 11

EXAMINATION LANGUAGE

The IRC is a U.S.-based program and the examinations are administered in English only worldwide.
 

EXAMINATION FORMAT AND TIME

The examination is four hours long and consists of 200 multiple choice questions. It is administered in a computer-based format online and on demand with live remote proctoring nationwide and internationally.
 

EXAMINATION FEE​S

EXAM FEES
Member Fee: $1,095
Non-member Fee: $1,295
Exam Retake Fee: $225
Refund/Withdrawal Fee: $200
(Applies to all refund requests if the request is received before the testing window begins)
Transfer/Rescheduling Fee: $125
(Applies when transferring or rescheduling an exam appointment more than once and/or transferring the exam appointment to the next year. the same fee applies for missed exam appointment)
Duplicate Score Report: $25
Score Verification: $25
 

EXAMINATION SCORING

IRC examination score is based on your total number of correct answers. You should answer all items, as there is no penalty for incorrect responses. However, choose only one response per item. If more than one response per item is selected that item will be scored as an incorrect response.

The passing score for the IRC exam is 124 correct answers of the 180 scored items. The remaining 20 pre-test unscored items are used for developing future exams and, accordingly, are not scored and have no impact on an applicant’s pass/fail status. Individual raw exam scores are confidential.