CPE hours at ISCA depend on your membership designation. A CA (Singapore) completes 120 hours over a rolling three-year period with 20 verifiable hours a year; an Affiliate completes 30 hours with five a year. Two verifiable ethics hours sit inside the annual figure for every designation that has one. Public accountants carry a second, stricter regime set by ACRA. This article covers each requirement, what ISCA treats as verifiable, and what happens at the annual compliance check.
1. ISCA CPE Requirements at a Glance
| Requirement | What the rules say |
|---|---|
| Basis | International Education Standard 7, issued by IFAC and adopted by ISCA |
| Who is covered | FCA (Singapore), CA (Singapore), Associates and Affiliates |
| Who isn't | Members-in-Retirement, for whom CPE is voluntary |
| CA (Singapore) and FCA | 120 hours per rolling three-year period, 60 verifiable, 20 verifiable a year |
| Associate (ISCA) | 60 hours per rolling three-year period, 30 verifiable, 10 verifiable a year |
| Affiliate (ISCA) | 30 hours per rolling three-year period, 15 verifiable, five verifiable a year |
| Ethics | Two verifiable hours a year, or six verifiable hours across the rolling period |
| Specialisation credentials | Eight verifiable hours a year in the specialised area, counting toward the designation requirement |
| Public accountants | The CA or FCA requirement, plus ACRA's CPE requirements |
| Rolling period | The three calendar years preceding the year of renewal |
| Evidence | Submitted only by members selected for the compliance check |
| Shortfall | A default six-month extension to 30 June of the renewal year |
Each row above is a requirement, not a recommendation. Anywhere a point is guidance rather than an obligation, this article flags it.
2. Which Requirement Applies to You
ISCA sets CPE by membership designation, so two members doing similar work can hold different obligations. ISCA's FAQs state that all members holding the designations FCA (Singapore), CA (Singapore), Associates and Affiliates must fulfil CPE requirements, with Members-in-Retirement excepted.
| Designation | Rolling three-year total | Verifiable | Verifiable each year |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA (Singapore) and FCA (Singapore) | 120 hours | 60 hours | 20 hours, including two on ethics |
| Associate (ISCA) | 60 hours | 30 hours | 10 hours, including two on ethics |
| Affiliate (ISCA) | 30 hours | 15 hours | Five hours, including two on ethics |
| Members-in-Retirement | Voluntary |
Note what stays constant down that table. The ethics figure doesn't scale with the designation, so an Affiliate's two ethics hours account for 40% of their annual verifiable requirement, against 10% for a CA.
- Specialisation credential holders: complete a minimum of eight verifiable hours a year relevant to their specialised area. The credentials ISCA names include the ISCA Financial Forensic Professional and the ISCA Insolvency and Restructuring Professional. Those eight hours count toward the designation requirement rather than adding to it. Associates (Specialist) complete the same eight hours plus two verifiable ethics hours annually, counting toward the Associate (ISCA) requirement. ISCA Professional Business Accountants sit alongside Associates for compliance check purposes.
- Public accountants: hold the CA or FCA requirement and, separately, must comply with ACRA's requirements for the application or renewal of their certificate of registration. Those are set out in section 7.
Members admitted through the ISCA-CIMA pathway or through recognition of another body hold ISCA membership in their own right and take the requirement for their designation in full. Anyone retaining their original membership holds a second obligation to that body, whether that's CIMA or another institute.
3. The Annual Minimum and the Rolling Three-Year Period
ISCA's annual minimum is a verifiable figure rather than a total, and that distinction catches people out.
A CA (Singapore) who completes 20 hours in a year, 10 of them verifiable, has not met the annual requirement. The 20 hours must all be verifiable. Across three years that produces the full 60 verifiable hours, leaving the remaining 60 of the 120 to be made up of non-verifiable learning.
The rolling period is defined by reference to renewal, not to the current year. ISCA's own example: for 2021 membership renewal, the CPE compliance declaration covers the rolling three-year period from 2018 to 2020. The declaration reports on completed years.
New members aren't assessed against a full period before they've had one. For audit purposes, requirements commence from the next calendar year, and a member who hasn't yet reached a first rolling three-year period is audited against the reduced minimum applying to their position.
4. Verifiable Learning, Non-Verifiable Learning and Ethics
ISCA's test is that verifiable learning can be objectively verified by a competent source. The Institute publishes a set of questions, all of which must be answered yes for an activity to qualify. Non-verifiable learning has no evidence to corroborate the hours claimed, and ISCA gives reading of technical, professional, financial or business literature, self-study and research as its examples.
Relevance applies to both types. ISCA's stated general rule is that acceptable CPE activities should be relevant to the work of members and should contribute to enhancing professional competence.
Ethics: can be satisfied two ways, and members choose:
- Two verifiable ethics hours in each CPE year, or
- Six verifiable ethics hours across a rolling three-year period
ISCA describes this as a mandatory requirement however it's met. The subject matter is treated broadly: the Institute accepts a wide range of topics as ethics-related, and names anti-bribery and anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, and a company's own code of ethics or code of conduct among generally acceptable ones. ISCA leaves it to members' discretion to substantiate what a course covers.
Ethics hours are logged under Category 2, Ethics and Professionalism, in the eServices portal. Outside the public accountant regime, those numbered categories organise reporting rather than imposing quotas: ISCA states that other than for public accountants, fulfilment of CPE requirements is generally not restricted to the various categories.
5. What Counts as Eligible CPE
ISCA's position is that verifiable CPE activities extend beyond training, and that attendance at external training or courses is one verifiable activity among several rather than the only route.
| Activity | Treatment |
|---|---|
| ISCA webinars, e-learning modules and classroom courses | Verifiable, evidenced by the certificate or letter stating the hours granted |
| External training and courses, from any provider | Verifiable on the same basis |
| Structured e-learning through subscription platforms | Verifiable where completion is evidenced |
| Ethics activity across the accepted topic range | Verifiable, and counting toward the ethics requirement |
| Specialisation activity for credential holders | Verifiable, counting toward both the eight specialist hours and the designation requirement |
| Reading technical, professional, financial or business literature | Non-verifiable |
| Self-study without evidence, and research | Non-verifiable |
Hours claimed follow the provider's certificate. ISCA notes that the number of CPE hours granted is clearly stated on each certificate or letter.
What can't be counted
- Anything that can't be objectively verified by a competent source, toward the annual minimum. Because that minimum is entirely verifiable, non-verifiable learning cannot satisfy any part of it in any year.
- Activity that isn't relevant to your work as a member.
- ISCA membership hours toward ACRA's public accountant requirements, or the reverse. The regimes are assessed by different bodies against different rules.
- Additional CPE hours ordered by the Public Accountants Oversight Committee under the Practice Monitoring Programme, toward an ACRA renewal, and preparation time, which earns participants no hours at all under ACRA's measurement rules.
6. Online Learning, Self-Study, Webinars and On-Demand Education
ISCA accepts verifiable CPE from external training providers; members are not limited to the Institute’s own courses. Online courses, webinars and on-demand learning from other providers can qualify when they meet ISCA’s requirements for verifiable learning. ISCA also offers its own training, but this is one option rather than the required route.
Delivery format isn't what decides the category. ISCA lists self-study among its non-verifiable examples and structured courses among its verifiable ones, and the dividing line between them is whether a competent source can objectively verify that the learning happened. The same subject, studied online, can land in either column depending on what exists at the end of it.
The overarching requirement is that the activity is relevant to your work and contributes to enhancing your professional competence, and that it can be objectively verified if it's to count toward the annual minimum. Evidence in practice means the certificate or letter stating the hours granted, since that's what members selected for a compliance check submit as evidence of participation. ISCA assesses CPE one member and one activity at a time, and pre-approves no providers. In ISCA's own terms, structured online self-study with documented completion falls within verifiable learning rather than self-study.
EverCPE.com provides structured e-learning for accountants that may help you fulfil your CPE requirements.
EverCPE.com is interactive, structured e-learning rather than passive reading. Each learning session comes with:
- Content shaped around the exact accounting and auditing questions you have, instead of generic off-the-shelf courses
- Substantive material organised around clear learning objectives
- Knowledge checks with feedback as you go, so you fix any misunderstanding while you work through the learning session
- Scored multiple-choice questions that check whether you understand the material
- A certificate of completion once you complete the learning session, naming you, the session and the hours
- A full downloadable handout covering the session, its learning objectives, and its content
In short, EverCPE.com leaves you with documentation and evidence of the learning you completed.
7. Public Accountants: ACRA's Separate CPE Regime
Public accountants in Singapore are registered and regulated by ACRA under a CPE syllabus approved by the Public Accountants Oversight Committee. ISCA membership is itself one of ACRA's continued registration criteria, alongside carrying on public practice in Singapore, maintaining an office where services can be engaged, and being available to undertake work for the public. A public accountant therefore holds both sets of obligations at once, and meeting one does not establish the other.
| Requirement | Hours per rolling three-year period |
|---|---|
| Total CPE | 120 hours |
| Structured learning within that total | At least 90 hours |
| Structured learning each calendar year | At least 20 hours |
| Core Expertise areas within the 90 | At least 60 hours |
| Category 1, Financial and Sustainability Reporting Standards and Pronouncements | At least 18 hours |
| Category 2, Ethics and Professionalism | At least 6 hours |
| Category 3, Auditing and Assurance Standards, Pronouncements and Methodology | At least 18 hours |
| Category 4, Insolvency and Restructuring | At least 9 hours, for approved liquidators |
| Category 5, Information Technology | At least 9 hours |
Categories 1 and 3 were renamed with effect from 1 January 2023, absorbing sustainability reporting and assurance respectively. The hours attached to them did not change.
Public accountants registered only to act as judicial managers who don't perform audits follow a different breakdown: at least 30 hours across Categories 1 and 4 with a minimum of nine in Category 4, at least six in Category 2, and at least nine in Category 5. ACRA ceased registering judicial manager public accountants after the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act took effect, and those with ongoing pre-Act work may renew until those cases complete.
For initial registration, the legislated requirement is 40 CPE hours in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of application, of which at least 30 must be structured. At least 20 of those 30 fall in Core Expertise areas: six hours in Category 1, two in Category 2, six in Category 3 and three in Category 5. Applicants who completed the Public Practice Programme in the same 12 months are exempted from the two Category 2 hours, though the total still applies.
How hours are measured. The minimum programme duration is 0.5 CPE hour. Courses running longer than 30 minutes but under an hour earn 0.5 hour, and no more than half of the 90 structured hours, being 45 hours, may come from such courses in a rolling period. Where a course is delivered as several 30-minute modules building to one learning objective, hours are recorded only once every module is complete. Participants earn nothing for preparation time.
What ACRA treats as structured learning includes courses run by recognised professional bodies, educational institutions, public accounting firms or business organisations; online courses, structured video learning and other individual study programmes that require some evidence of successful completion; participation as speaker or attendee at conferences, briefing sessions and discussion groups; acting as lecturer, instructor or discussion leader; published technical contributions; and committee or board service at a recognised professional or standards-setting body, to the extent technical material is prepared or reviewed. An individual study programme requiring registration qualifies in the year it's completed, established by the provider's evidence of completion.
Records and consequences. Public accountants maintain their own CPE records in the format ACRA prescribes, recording the provider's name and contact details, the title and description of content, the date, and the number of hours. Evidence of participation can be certificates, attendance lists, or employers' or lecturers' letters of certification, retained for three years excluding the year the CPE was acquired and produced when requested. A public accountant found not to have met the requirements contrary to their renewal declaration is referred to the PAOC, which may cancel the registration under section 15(4)(a) of the Accountants Act on the basis that it was obtained by misrepresentation. Additional hours ordered by the PAOC under the Practice Monitoring Programme cannot be counted toward renewal.
8. Recording, Declaring and the CPE Compliance Check
Members record their activities in the ISCA eServices Portal and track their position under the "CPE Compliance" tab. The CPE compliance declaration is made at membership renewal, covering the rolling three-year period.
Certificates aren't filed routinely. Only members selected for the compliance check submit evidence, which makes retention a personal responsibility rather than an ongoing submission. Selected members are notified by email and post, then log in to the eServices Portal to submit their CPE records together with evidence of participation for verifiable activities completed in the period.
The check produces one of three outcomes:
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Compliant | Requirements met; no further action |
| Insufficient Hours | Hours were denied during the audit, creating a shortfall, or too few hours were submitted |
| Non-Compliant | Requirements not met on grounds such as no response after repeated communications, no records submitted, or concerns about a false declaration |
For Insufficient Hours and Non-Compliant outcomes, the member provides a written explanation of the reasons, including plans to remedy the shortfall.
9. Shortfalls, Extensions and Exemptions
A shortfall at renewal isn't an immediate breach. ISCA gives a default six-month extension, to 30 June of the renewal year, to make good the missing hours. No application is needed for it.
Members who need longer than that submit an online request or write to ISCA's CPE audit team, stating the reasons for the extension and their plans for remedy.
ISCA also operates a published CPE exemptions process, which sits alongside knowing your requirements, completing activities and recording them as one of the four steps the Institute sets out for managing CPE.
Several reductions operate without any application at all. Membership designation does most of the work, since moving between designations changes the number directly, and the shift to Member-in-Retirement makes CPE voluntary. Specialisation hours reduce duplication rather than adding to the load, because the eight specialist hours count toward the designation requirement. And new members are measured against a reduced minimum until a first full rolling period has passed.
10. Official Sources and Member Responsibility
This article sets out ISCA's published rules as at the research date in the verification log below. It doesn't replace the ISCA Constitution and Rules, ISCA's own guidance, ACRA's requirements for public accountants, or advice about your situation.
Research verified: 23 September 2026, against ISCA's published CPE requirements and guidance, and ACRA's published requirements for public accountants, as at that date.
| Source | What it supports | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| ISCA — CPE Requirements | Hours for each designation, annual verifiable minimums, the two ethics routes, specialisation credential hours, the rolling period definition and worked example, treatment of new members, the six-month extension, ISCA's own delivery channels, IES 7 basis | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ISCA — Verifiable and Non-verifiable Learning | The objective verification test, non-verifiable examples, the relevance rule | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ISCA — Member Obligations FAQs | Designations covered and the Member-in-Retirement exception, ethics as mandatory with accepted topics, Category 2 logging, categories not restricting general members, evidence only on selection, hours stated on certificates, extension requests | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ISCA — CPE Compliance Check | Notification method, submission of records and evidence, the three outcomes, written explanations, designation groupings and specialisation credentials | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ISCA — Updating your CPE activities | Recording and monitoring in the eServices Portal | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ISCA — CPE Exemptions | The exemptions process | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ACRA — Requirements for renewal of public accountant registration | 120 hours per rolling three years, 90 structured, 20 structured a year, the 60-hour Core Expertise total and the 18/6/18/9/9 breakdown, the 2023 renaming of Categories 1 and 3, the approved liquidator variant, exclusion of PAOC-ordered hours, continued registration criteria including ISCA membership, retention of evidence | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ACRA — CPE requirement for registration as a public accountant | 40 hours in the preceding 12 months, 30 structured, the Core Expertise breakdown for registration, the Public Practice Programme exemption | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ACRA — Continuing Professional Education Syllabus (Revised) | Structured learning examples including online courses, structured video learning and individual study programmes requiring evidence of successful completion; programme measurement guidelines; the judicial manager breakdown; record format and three-year retention; evidence types; PAOC referral and cancellation under section 15(4)(a) of the Accountants Act | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ACRA — Practice Direction No. 1 of 2025 | The 0.5-hour minimum programme duration and the 45-hour cap on half-hour courses within the 90 structured hours | 23 Sep 2026 |
| ACRA — Renewal of Certificate of Registration by Public Accountants | Current category titles and the structured learning framework | 23 Sep 2026 |
Disclaimer: CPE requirements can depend on individual membership status, professional circumstances, jurisdiction and other factors. Requirements may also change over time. Members are responsible for confirming their current CPE obligations directly with ISCA and, where applicable, their local jurisdiction, employer, regulator or other relevant authority. EverCPE.com does not guarantee that completion of any particular course will satisfy a member's individual CPE requirements.
