Acceptable Fields of Study for CPE

To maintain the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) credential, CFEs are required to complete 20 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits per compliance year. At least 10 of these credits must be fraud-related and 2 must be ethics-related.* The remaining credits may be general or can fall into the other 2 categories.

The 3 categories of CPE accepted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) are detailed below, as well as acceptable fields of study that fall within them.

Fraud-Related CPE

To be considered fraud-related, CPE credit must relate to the fraud examination body of knowledge found in the Fraud Examiners Manual. 

All CPE credit earned through the ACFE is considered fraud-related. Credit earned through another source must fall within 1 or more of the following domains:

  • Financial Transactions and Fraud Schemes
    • Accounting
    • Asset misappropriation
    • Corruption
    • Consumer fraud
    • Contract and procurement fraud
    • Cyberfraud
    • Financial institution fraud
    • Financial statement fraud
    • Health care fraud
    • Identity theft
    • Insurance fraud
    • Payment fraud
    • Theft of data and intellectual property
  • Law
    • Bankruptcy/insolvency fraud
    • Basic principles of evidence
    • Civil actions
    • Criminal prosecutions
    • Individual rights during examinations
    • Money laundering
    • Overview of the legal system
    • Securities fraud
    • Tax fraud
    • Testifying
    • The law related to fraud 
  • Investigation
    • Collecting evidence
    • Covert operations
    • Data analysis and reporting tools
    • Digital forensics and e-discovery
    • Interview theory and application
    • Interviewing suspects and signed statements
    • Planning and conducting a fraud examination
    • Report writing
    • Sources of information
    • Tracing illicit transactions 
  • Fraud Prevention and Deterrence
    • Auditors’ fraud-related responsibilities
    • Corporate governance
    • Criminology/understanding criminal behavior 
    • Ethics
    • Fraud prevention programs
    • Fraud risk assessment
    • Fraud risk management
    • Management’s fraud related responsibilities
    • White-collar/financial crime

Ethics-Related CPE

To be considered ethics-related, CPE credit must relate to 1 of the topics below:

  • Behavioral ethics
  • Corporate/business ethics or ethics related to a specific profession
  • Ethical decision-making
  • Personal ethics
  • Regulatory ethics 

The ACFE accepts ethics training from other organizations as long as the primary course topic is ethics or ethics-related. 

ACFE courses that count toward meeting the ethics CPE requirement are marked with a special icon. 

ACFE courses marked as ethics-related may be counted toward both your fraud-related and ethics-related CPE requirements. 

General CPE

CPE credit that is not considered fraud- or ethics-related may be claimed as general credit. The ACFE accepts up to 10 general credits per compliance year and recognizes the CPE categories and standards set forth by NASBA (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy).

The ACFE does not accept activities that fall within normal job duties for CPE credit, unless those activities are training- or education-related. Click here for a full list of types of CPE credit accepted by the ACFE.

*CPE credits may overlap if a course meets both the fraud and ethics requirements. For instance, a CPE course that offers 10 credits in both fraud-and ethics-related fields of study would allow a CFE to fulfill both the 10 required fraud credits and the 2 required ethics credits. The CFE would need 10 additional credits (which could fall into any of the 3 categories) to complete their annual CPE compliance.