Desk note
Series 79 vs Series 7: different jobs, different exams, and when bankers need both
The Series 79 (Investment Banking Representative Qualification Exam) qualifies you to advise on and structure deals (offerings, M&A, tender offers, restructurings), while the Series 7 qualifies you to sell securities to investors. A banker who also markets a deal directly to investors needs both, or the Series 82 when the offering is private.
Side by side
Series 79 vs Series 7 at a glance
150
minutes on the 79
for 75 scored items plus 5 unscored
225
minutes on the 7
for 125 scored items plus 5 unscored
Both are FINRA representative exams, both need a sponsoring member firm, and both sit on top of the same SIE. After that they part ways. The 79 checks whether you can value a company and run a transaction; the 7 checks whether you can handle customers and the products they buy. The table puts them side by side, with the 79 column tinted, since that is the one this site is about.
| Series 79 | Series 7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | Investment Banking Representative, FINRA Rule 1220(b)(5) | General Securities Representative |
| The job it covers | Advising on or facilitating debt and equity offerings, M&A, tender offers, restructurings, asset sales and divestitures | Soliciting, buying and selling securities for customers: corporate securities, options, investment company products, variable contracts and more |
| What it leaves out | Selling to investors, road shows included | Advising on deal structure or preparing an offering’s marketing plan |
| Corequisite | SIE | SIE |
| Sponsorship | Required: a FINRA (or other SRO) member firm | Required: a FINRA (or other SRO) member firm |
| Items | 75 scored + 5 unscored pretest, 4 choices each | 125 scored + 5 unscored pretest |
| Time | 2 h 30 min | 3 h 45 min |
| Passing score | 73 | 72 |
| Fee | $395 per FINRA (checked Oct 2026) | $395 per FINRA (checked Oct 2026) |
| Accredited investor | Not today; on Sep 30, 2026 the SEC asked for comment on adding it | Yes, under the SEC’s 2020 order |
Passing scores as FINRA lists them. The 79’s 73 is a scaled score, not a percentage and not a count of correct answers.
Structure
What 'top-off exam' means: both sit on the SIE
Since October 1, 2018, FINRA’s representative exams have come in two layers. The Securities Industry Essentials exam (SIE) carries the general knowledge every registered person needs: markets, products, the basic rules of the business. The 79 and the 7 are “top-off” exams stacked on it, each testing one job. You can pass the SIE and your top-off in either order; the registration needs both.
The practical consequence is that the SIE is shared. Move from a sales desk to a deal team with a 7 and a valid SIE, and you sit only the 79. The SIE needs no sponsor, has a minimum age of 18 and stays valid for four years, so many candidates arrive at their first job with it already done. Each top-off needs a firm to enroll you, which is where the Series 79 license path picks up.
Nov 2, 2009
The 79 arrives
FINRA creates the Limited Representative – Investment Banking category and its exam.
May 3, 2010
Opt-in closes
Until this date, bankers already holding the 7 could opt into the new category without sitting the 79.
Oct 1, 2018
The SIE split
General knowledge moves into the SIE, the 79 becomes a 75-item top-off, and the category is renamed Investment Banking Representative.
Oct 27, 2025
Fewer pretest items
Unscored pretest items on the 79 drop from 10 to 5, for 80 items in all.
The banker's side
What the Series 79 qualifies you to do
The 79 leads to the Investment Banking Representative registration under FINRA Rule 1220(b)(5), and the rule defines the job by activity. Anyone who advises on or facilitates a debt or equity offering, public or private, needs it. So does anyone working on mergers and acquisitions, tender offers, financial restructurings, asset sales, divestitures, reorganizations and business combinations, fairness and solvency opinions included.
- Origination, structuring and pricing of an offering
- Underwriting, syndication, allocation and stabilization
- Sell-side and buy-side M&A, including fairness opinions
- Tender offers and restructurings, in and out of bankruptcy
The exam follows the same map. Function 1, data analysis and valuation, takes 37 of the 75 scored items; underwriting and offerings take 20; M&A, tender offers and restructurings take 18. The exam page covers format and scoring, and the outline weights sit on the bar beside this text.
What the 79 does not do is let you sell. Persuading an investor to buy the deal you built is a sales activity, and FINRA files it under a different registration.
| Function | Scope | Items | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Collection, Analysis and Evaluation of Data | 37 | 49% |
| F2 | Underwriting/ | 20 | 27% |
| F3 | M&A, Tender Offers and Financial Restructuring Transactions | 18 | 24% |
The seller's side
What the Series 7 qualifies you to do
- Registration
- General Securities Representative
- Products
- Corporate securities, municipal fund securities, options, direct participation programs, investment company products, variable contracts
- Activities
- Solicitation, purchase and sale of those products for customers
The Series 7 is the General Securities Representative Qualification Examination. Per FINRA’s Series 7 page (checked Oct 2026), it qualifies you to solicit, buy and sell almost the whole menu of securities products on behalf of customers. Its centre of gravity is the customer: accounts, products, suitable recommendations, orders.
That makes it the license of retail brokers, institutional salespeople and many traders. It is also the longer exam, 125 scored items (plus 5 unscored pretest items) in 3 hours 45 minutes with a passing score of 72 as FINRA lists it, and like the 79 it needs a sponsoring firm and the SIE.
The 7 carries one perk the 79 lacks, for now. Under the SEC’s 2020 order, holders of the Series 7, 65 and 82 count as accredited investors. On September 30, 2026 the SEC asked for public comment on adding the Series 79 to that list; until it issues an order, passing the 79 does not make you accredited.
Activity by activity
When an investment banker needs both
FINRA draws the line between advising the issuer and selling to investors. Most of a banker’s week sits on the first side; road shows and direct selling sit on the second. Find your activities in the table and the exams follow.
| Activity | What you need |
|---|---|
| Models, valuation and pitch materials for an M&A client | SIE + 79 |
| Structuring and pricing a public offering | SIE + 79 |
| Structuring private placements and nothing else | SIE + 79, or SIE + 82 |
| Presenting on a road show or selling the deal directly to investors | SIE + 79, plus the 7 (or the 82 for a private offering) |
| Preparing or advising on an offering’s marketing plan, as a Series 7 holder | Add the 79 |
| Retail or institutional sales and trading, no deal work | SIE + 7; the 79 is not needed |
From FINRA’s Series 79 page and Rule 1220(b)(5), checked Oct 2026. Your firm’s compliance team decides which registrations it files for you.
So yes, plenty of bankers hold both. The classic case is a capital-markets banker who joins investor meetings while an offering is marketed: the 79 covers the structuring and pricing, the 7 covers the conversation with the buyer. An M&A analyst who never speaks to an investor can do the whole job on the SIE and the 79.
Which exam comes first is a firm decision, not a rule, since neither is a prerequisite for the other. For the state-law exam that often joins this pair on a new analyst’s schedule, see Series 79 and 63.
The 79 lets you build the deal. Selling it to investors takes the 7, or the 82.
The third option
Where the Series 82 fits
Per FINRA, checked Oct 2026
Series 82
- Private Securities Offerings Representative
- 50 items
- 1 h 30 min
- Passing score 70
- Corequisite: SIE
Private placements only
The Series 82 is the Private Securities Offerings Representative Exam. It qualifies you to solicit and sell private placement securities as part of a primary offering, and nothing beyond that: no public deals, no M&A. It needs the SIE and a sponsoring firm, like the other two.
For a banker it matters in two ways. If your work is limited to private placements, SIE + 82 can replace SIE + 79 for the structuring. And because the 82 includes selling private placements, it can stand in for the 7 when the investor meetings are for a private offering. The day a public deal or an acquisition lands on your desk, the 82 stops being enough.
Difficulty
Is the Series 79 harder than the Series 7?
Harder for whom is the honest answer, because the two exams test different muscles. The 79 is shorter, but almost half of its scored items sit in Function 1: you calculate an enterprise value, a terminal value or an accretion/dilution effect, then pick from four options that each match a familiar slip. The 7 is longer and wider, with options strategies, customer-account rules and a long list of products, and less arithmetic per item.
If you arrive from a finance degree and a modelling course, the 79’s numbers may feel like home and its other half, offerings, registration and exemptions, becomes the real work. From a sales desk it often runs the other way: the rules look familiar and the valuation chain is new. Either way, the 79 rewards working problems on paper over reading about them.
What nobody can hand you is a pass-rate comparison. FINRA publishes no pass rate for the 79, and this site prints none for either exam; the pass-rate page explains why. The useful measure is your own accuracy by function in the Series 79 practice test, which shows where the exam is harder for you in particular.
Questions people ask
FAQ
Is the Series 79 harder than the Series 7?
It is hard in a different way. The 79 is shorter (75 scored items, 150 minutes) but leans on valuation arithmetic; the 7 runs 125 scored items in 3 h 45 min and covers a wider range of products and customer rules. No published pass rate settles the question either way.
What is the difference between Series 7 and 79?
The 79 qualifies you as an Investment Banking Representative, advising on and structuring offerings, M&A, tender offers and restructurings. The 7 qualifies you as a General Securities Representative, soliciting and selling securities to customers. Both require the SIE and a sponsoring member firm.
Can you hold both the Series 7 and Series 79?
Yes, and bankers who meet investors on road shows need the 7 (or the 82) on top of the 79. Each exam is enrolled separately through your sponsoring firm, and one valid SIE serves as the corequisite for both.
Do investment bankers need the Series 7?
Not for advisory work. SIE + 79 covers advising on and structuring deals; the 7, or the 82 for private offerings, is added when a banker sells to investors directly or presents on a road show.
Which is better, Series 7 or Series 79?
Neither; they qualify different jobs. If your work is advising on and structuring deals, the 79 is the one FINRA requires; if you sell securities to customers, it is the 7. A banker who also markets deals to investors needs both, or the 82 for private offerings. Format, outline and free practice start from the Lucite Desk front page.
Reading about the exam is not the exam
The Series 79 practice app has the full bank, sorted by outline function and explained option by option — the part of the prep that looks like the exam.