Family A · Pension funds and insurers · Mexican regime · Exam open
Derivatives Certification · Afores (CONSAR)
In derivatives, the error is quantified and lands on the monthly statement.
DER-CONSAR
01 — ABSTRACTDerivatives Certification · Afores (CONSAR)
Mexico's retirement fund managers, the AFOREs, invest the nation's pension savings under a regime that admits derivatives for one purpose: hedging risk and managing exposures efficiently. Since 2015, the Circular Única Financiera has required every officer in investments, risk, compliance and back office to be certified, and it sanctions both the fund manager and the uncertified operator whose trades produce losses. The Derivatives Certification · Afores (CONSAR) is the exam through which the RiskMathics Certificate Institute, an independent third party recognized under Article 70 of the SAR financial provisions, attests that competence.
It is the active certification with the longest track record in the RiskMathics group, which has certified AFORE derivatives personnel since 2012 and since 2025 does so through its independent certifier. The exam is not a certificate of attendance: 120 items in four hours, three equivalent forms, a fixed recipe by subject and cognitive level, and a live item bank audited against the regime in force. It is taken by function, because the person who decides a position is not assessed the way the person who measures it, polices it or books it is.
The credential is valid for three years, the same cadence at which the regime itself changes. The exam is delivered online on Saturdays, proctored over Zoom with official identification. The certification consists of the exam alone: the only requirements are a valid official ID and the function assigned by the institution, and the syllabus for each function, with its subject weighting, is published by the Institute. A pass here discharges a regulatory obligation, not an employer's preference.
DER-CONSAR
02 — INDUSTRYWhat is happening in the industry
Mexico's retirement savings system is the country's second-largest financial actor after commercial banking. As of May 2026, the generational SIEFOREs held MXN 8.973 trillion in net assets and the AFOREs administered 70.3 million accounts. The regime admits derivatives for hedging and efficient exposure management, with counterparties set by Banco de México and the DCVaR as the leverage measure under daily stress tests. The competence of the people who trade, measure, police and book those instruments is a prudential control.
CONSAR does not delegate its authority: it obliges the fund manager to certify its staff and recognizes a few independent third parties to do so. In derivatives there is now more than one; the Institute is one of them and is also registered for structured instruments. The question becomes equivalence: Annex J of the Circular Única Financiera requires collegiate bodies, separation between those who teach and those who assess, public study guides, controlled environments, identity verification and annual statistics. A certifier is judged by its exam; this Institute publishes its own.
Global OTC derivatives notional reached USD 846 trillion in June 2025, and Mexico's swap market references roughly USD 4.9 trillion linked to TIIE, in transition from 28-day TIIE to TIIE de Fondeo since January 2025. The historical losses, from Mexican corporates in 2008 to Barings and the London Whale, share one lesson: they do not come from a single mistake but from accumulated failures of knowledge, segregation, limits, valuation and governance.
DER-CONSAR
03 — WHYWhy this certification
In derivatives, the error is quantified. A mis-sized hedge, a mis-booked collateral call or a mis-computed limit shows up on the month's statement and, inside an AFORE, in workers' retirement savings. The certification exists so that the person who takes, measures, polices or books that position can demonstrate to an independent third party that they command the instrument, its risk and the regime that bounds it.
The Institute does not teach to the exam: it builds it, audits it and administers it. The same function faces the same standard on any date, and when the rule changes the item is withdrawn or rewritten whether or not anyone demands it. That is why the credential is valid for three years rather than for life: the regime is not for life either.
- Genuine regulatory recognition: an independent third party certifying AFORE personnel under Article 70 of the SAR financial provisions and its concordant Articles 122 and 140.
- An exam by function: Investments and Trading, Risk Management, Compliance and Back Office sit different forms, each with its own mandatory subjects.
- A fixed recipe: 120 items allocated by subject and cognitive level, three equivalent forms, and only levels 1, 2 and 3 of Bloom's taxonomy.
- A live bank: every item is audited against the regime in force; when the rule changes, the item is withdrawn or rewritten.
- Independence: the certifier belongs to no institution it assesses and keeps the people who teach apart from the people who evaluate.
- The same subject matter is what the CNSF designates to the Institute in Annex 8.4.2 of the CUSF for insurers, surety companies and pension insurers.
DER-CONSAR
04 — OUTCOMESWhat it attests
- 01
Value futures, forwards, options and swaps, and explain basis, curve shape and the effect of roll-over on a hedge.
- 02
Measure the market, credit, liquidity and counterparty risk of a derivatives position, and read the DCVaR as the portfolio's leverage measure.
- 03
Apply the SAR investment regime to a specific trade: hedging purpose, counterparties admitted by Banco de México, limits and netting of positions.
- 04
Operate the mechanics of listed and OTC markets: initial and maintenance margin, margin calls, central counterparties, the Credit Support Annex and eligible collateral.
- 05
Book and control a trade end to end: confirmation, settlement, allocation, accounting entry and reconciliation.
- 06
Decompose a structured note into its components, identify the embedded derivative and distinguish capital protection from the issuer's credit risk.
- 07
Act within the codes and principles that govern the market: the FX Global Code, the BIS Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures, the G20 OTC derivatives reforms and OECD and IOPS good practice for pension funds.
DER-CONSAR
05 — INSTITUTIONSThe cut line
An institution that requires this certification is not buying a certificate; it is buying a cut line that a third party applies equally to everyone. Two candidates in the same function face the same standard, on the same date or on different ones, and results are reported by subject. That turns the exam into a hiring and promotion criterion that does not depend on the interviewer.
For an AFORE it is also an obligation: the regime sanctions the fund manager and the uncertified operator whose trades produce losses. Enrolling the whole team by CSV file with a single payment, spreading it across Saturdays and reading results by subject lets an institution plan coverage of every function before the regulator asks.
- The same standard for the same function: a fixed recipe by subject and cognitive level; no one receives an easier exam than anyone else.
- Results by subject, with each function's mandatory subjects flagged: the institution sees where the gap is, not only whether the candidate passed.
- Three-year validity: the team's recertification plan tracks changes in the regime.
- Institutional enrollment: the whole team by CSV, one payment, distribution across dates, and weekday sittings by appointment.
DER-CONSAR
06 — PROFILEWho it is for
Who it is for
- AFORE Investments and Trading staff who decide and execute derivatives positions.
- Risk Managers who measure, limit and report derivatives exposure and the DCVaR.
- Compliance officers (Contraloría Normativa) who police adherence to the regime and stop the trade that does not comply.
- Back Office staff responsible for confirmation, settlement, allocation and accounting of derivatives.
- Trading desks and risk teams outside the retirement system that want the same command attested by an independent third party.
Who it is not for
- Anyone seeking a quantitative specialization in exotic derivatives, XVA or programming: that path is the Financial Derivatives Specialist.
- Anyone who decides, measures or books investments in CKDs, CERPIs, FIBRAs or FIBRA E: that subject belongs to the Structured Products Certification · Afores (CONSAR).
- Staff of insurers, surety companies and pension insurers: the same subject is certified under the CNSF designation in the Derivatives Certification · Insurers (CNSF).
DER-CONSAR
07 — KNOWLEDGEBody of knowledge
Eight subjects make up the registered item bank. The recipe fixes how many items come from each subject and at which cognitive level; that proportion changes with the function, according to what the function actually does in the job. The only proportion common to every form is the SAR regime block.
01Introduction to derivativesvaries by function
- Exchange-traded and OTC markets; purpose and services of the central counterparty
- Initial and maintenance margin, margin calls and eligible collateral
- Open interest, volume, traded value and position limits
- Master agreement and Credit Support Annex: events of default and termination events
- Linear and non-linear derivatives; spot versus forward transactions
- Basis risk and the effect of curve shape on roll-over
02Futures and forwardsvaries by function
- Cost-of-carry valuation and basis behavior
- Hedge design: hedge ratio and mismatches
- Daily settlement, margining and expiries
- Futures on TIIE, currencies, indices and government bonds
- Currency and rate forwards versus listed futures
03Optionsvaries by function
- Premium, intrinsic value and time value
- Sensitivities: delta, gamma, vega, theta and rho
- Hedging and exposure strategies with options
- Options on futures and options on swaps
- Implied volatility and how it reads in valuation
04Swapsvaries by function
- Interest rate and cross-currency swaps
- Curve-based valuation and cash-flow discounting
- The transition from 28-day TIIE to TIIE de Fondeo
- Futures on swaps and swaptions
- Counterparty risk and collateral in OTC swaps
05Structured notesvaries by function
- Components: zero-coupon bond plus embedded derivative
- Capital protection versus issuer credit risk
- The issuer's back-to-back hedge
- Embedded cost and booking of the note
- Underlying-linked structures under the SAR regime
06Derivatives risk managementvaries by function
- Market, credit, liquidity and counterparty risk
- DCVaR as a leverage measure and stress scenarios
- Limits, netting of positions and use of the currency limit
- Liquidity risk under margin calls
- Reporting to the financial risk and investment committees
07Trade booking and controlvaries by function
- Confirmation, settlement, allocation and accounting entry of the trade
- Position reconciliation and tracking of open contracts by counterparty
- Booking and monitoring of guarantees: margin and collateral
- Integrated automated systems and an end-to-end audit trail
- Daily valuation and position reporting to the committees
08Conflicts of interest, best practice and the SAR regime≈ 13 % (16 of 120 items per form)
- Article 70 of the SAR financial provisions and its concordant articles
- Investment regime: hedging purpose, Banco de México counterparties and derivatives limits
- The FX Global Code
- The BIS Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures
- BIS settlement procedures and counterparty risk management for OTC derivatives
- Delivery-versus-payment, central counterparty and central securities depository standards
- The role of the FSB and the G20 OTC derivatives reforms
- OECD and IOPS good practice for pension funds
DER-CONSAR
08 — CERTIFICATION EXAMCertification exam
Certification exam
Certification exam
The only requirements to sit it are a valid official ID and the function assigned by the institution. The RiskMathics Certificate Institute builds, audits and administers it as a third party independent of the institution being assessed, drawing on a live bank of 4,789 items that sustains the three active certifications.
The cut score in force is evidenced by the dated version of the exam it belongs to and is published here with that reference; in the meantime it may be requested at growth@riskmathics.com. The 600 out of 1,000 published by the Structured Products Certification · Afores (CONSAR) belongs to the registered exams of that subject and does not carry over to derivatives.
If the candidate does not pass
The Certification Board is defining the failure and retake policy: how many attempts each window allows, the minimum wait between them and the fee for sitting the exam again. It is published here as soon as it is approved; in the meantime, the figures may be requested at growth@riskmathics.com. Exam governance →
Items are written at levels 1, 2 and 3 of Bloom's taxonomy: remember, understand and apply. The share of each level changes with the function, according to what that function does in the job. Bloom's Taxonomy →
DER-CONSAR
10 — PATHLearning path
- Phase 1
Choose the function and enrollUp to 3 days before the chosen Saturday
The institution assigns the function: Investments and Trading, Risk Management, Compliance or Back Office. Enrollment is online, individually or as a team by CSV, and issues a registration number in the format RCI-YYYY-NNNN. The syllabus for the function, showing which subjects weigh more and at which cognitive level, is published at enrollment.
- Phase 2
Summons and exam48 hours before · 4 hours on Saturday
The personal Zoom link and platform access arrive 48 hours before; they are individual and cannot be forwarded. The exam begins at 09:00 Mexico City time, with official identification.
- Phase 3
Certification and validityThree years
The credential is issued with the regulatory recognition that corresponds to the sector and the function. It is valid for three years, because the regime is not for life either.
Investment
11Program and exam, priced separately
Candidates enrolling from Mexico pay in pesos; the rest of the world pays in US dollars. An institution may enroll its whole team with a single payment.
DER-CONSAR
12 — FAQFrequently asked questions
What is required to sit the exam?
A valid official ID and the function assigned by the institution: Investments and Trading, Risk Management, Compliance (Contraloría Normativa) or Back Office. Enrollment is online, individually or as a team by CSV, closes three days before the chosen Saturday and issues an individual registration number.
Which function should a candidate register under?
The function they hold at the AFORE: Investments and Trading, Risk Management, Compliance (Contraloría Normativa) or Back Office (confirmation, settlement, allocation and accounting). The exam changes with the function; the institution assigns it at enrollment.
How long is the certification valid?
Three years. It is not for life because the regime is not for life either: the item bank is audited against the rules in force and the credential renews on that same cadence.
What regulatory recognition does it carry?
The Institute is an independent third party certifying AFORE personnel under Article 70 of the general financial provisions of the Retirement Savings System, with its concordant Articles 122 and 140. In derivatives, the CNSF also designates the Institute in Annex 8.4.2 of the Circular Única de Seguros y Fianzas for insurers, surety companies and pension insurers.
How is the exam delivered?
Online, on a Saturday at 09:00 Mexico City time, proctored over Zoom with official identification. It is 120 items in four hours. The personal link arrives 48 hours before and each date seats 40 candidates. Weekday sittings are available by appointment.
Can an institution enroll its entire team?
Yes. Team enrollment is done with a CSV file and a single payment, and the team may be spread across several Saturdays. Each candidate receives an individual registration number and summons.
Derivatives Certification · Afores (CONSAR)
In derivatives, the error is quantified and lands on the monthly statement.