Current Issues in Financial Markets
GARP’s 2026 Current Issues list covers artificial intelligence, private credit, geopolitical risk, rising government debt, cryptocurrency and digital assets, and digital resilience. Use the prescribed papers for your exam year, then connect each theme to its risk transmission channels.
The topic at a glance
Eight papers across six themes
01 · Artificial intelligence
Advances in Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Capital Markets Activities
IMF · October 2024 · chapter 3
Open assigned reading02 · Artificial intelligence
The Financial Stability Implications of Artificial Intelligence
FSB · November 2024
Open assigned reading03 · Private credit
The Global Drivers of Private Credit
BIS · March 2025 Quarterly Review
Open assigned reading04 · Geopolitical risk
Global Financial Stability Report: Enhancing Resilience amid Uncertainty
IMF · April 2025 · chapter 2
Open assigned reading05 · Rising government debt
Monetary and Fiscal Policy: Safeguarding Stability and Trust
BIS · 2023 Annual Economic Report · chapter II
Open assigned reading06 · Cryptocurrency and digital assets
Regulating the Crypto Ecosystem: The Case of Unbacked Crypto Assets
IMF · September 2022
Open assigned reading07 · Cryptocurrency and digital assets
Tokenization and Financial Market Inefficiencies
IMF · January 2025
Open assigned reading08 · Digital resilience
Digital Resilience and Financial Stability: The Quest for Policy Tools in the Financial Sector
Paper linked by GARP · SSRN
Open assigned reading
Exam year: 2026. Publication years may be earlier. Some destinations contain a full report; use the chapter indicated above.
Original worked example
Turn a theme into a risk question
An illustrative lender adopts one external AI credit model used by many competitors. The supplier changes its inputs during a funding shock.
- STEP 1
Identify the shared vendor and model assumptions as common dependencies.
- STEP 2
Ask whether simultaneous lending decisions could amplify credit withdrawal.
- STEP 3
Separate what a prescribed paper actually supports from your own proposed mitigation.
The useful study note links a mechanism, affected exposure and control. It does not merely label the story “AI risk”.
Illustrative assumptions and calculations for learning. Not observed market data or an official exam item.
How the ideas fit together
Before you start: The 2026 prescribed reading list and the distinction between a paper’s evidence and your own example.
Use the exam year, not the newest headline
The grid identifies the eight papers linked by GARP for 2026. Publication dates differ from the exam year, and some links lead to a full report containing the specified chapter. Match the assigned section before taking notes. Check the official page again if preparing for a later sitting; this grid does not establish a 2027 syllabus.
Read a technology theme as a financial mechanism
For the AI example, distinguish the model’s individual forecasting errors from the effects of many institutions depending on one provider. The FSB paper discusses provider concentration and correlated behaviour as potential financial-stability vulnerabilities. Our lender scenario illustrates those channels; it is not an observed event reported by the paper.
Keep the reading year visible
This directory reflects the GARP list checked on 10 October 2026. It is not a 2027 reading list. Open GARP’s required-readings page for the paper titles and links, and use the learning objectives for your sitting. A new regulation or news article is useful context only when distinguished from prescribed curriculum content.
Work through the topic
Use the verified 2026 reading directory to organize study, then turn each assigned paper into an evidence-based explanation. The theme prompts below are study questions, not substitutes for reading the papers.
Start with the exam-year reading list
Current Issues changes with the prescribed exam-year reading list. A paper’s publication year and its assigned exam year need not match. Begin with GARP’s list, note the exact title and identify the required chapter where the destination is a full report. The eight links above belong to six published themes for 2026. Their presence here does not imply that these notes reproduce every argument, exhibit or learning objective.
Build one reading record per assigned paper rather than one record per broad theme. Two AI papers can examine different channels or scopes, and two digital-asset papers should not be collapsed into a single claim that all digital assets behave alike. Preserve the publisher, date, relevant section and the question the paper addresses. This makes later comparison more precise.
Use the official learning objectives alongside the paper. A general news summary may explain why a subject matters while omitting the mechanism, comparison or limitation that a learning objective asks you to analyze. External developments can provide context, but they should not silently replace the prescribed material. Recheck the official list when studying for a different exam year.
Study each theme through a concrete risk question
The following questions are original prompts for organizing the assigned material. For AI, ask how a shared model or provider could connect institutions that appear independent. For private credit, identify the borrower, financing structure, valuation process and sources of leverage before evaluating risk. For geopolitical events, trace the channel from the event to prices, cross-border activity or funding rather than treating the event label as an explanation.
For government debt, distinguish the issuer’s financing conditions, investor holdings and the interaction with the broader financial system. For digital assets, separate the legal claim, settlement mechanism, operational dependencies and sources of value. Tokenization describes a representation or process and does not by itself establish that the underlying claim is liquid, creditworthy or legally enforceable.
For digital resilience, ask what critical operation is affected, which dependencies are shared and what evidence supports continuity. These questions are intended to guide extraction from the assigned paper. If a reading does not answer a particular prompt, record that boundary instead of supplying a confident conclusion from the theme’s title.
| Theme | Question to investigate in the reading | Evidence to record |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial intelligence | Which dependencies can produce common behavior? | Mechanism, affected activity and stated uncertainty |
| Private credit | Where are leverage and valuation dependencies? | Exposure perimeter and data limitations |
| Geopolitical risk | How does the shock reach the financial exposure? | Transmission channel and scenario assumptions |
| Government debt | How do financing conditions interact with stability? | Balance-sheet links and policy context |
| Digital assets | What claim and process are actually changing? | Legal, market and operational distinctions |
| Digital resilience | Can critical operations continue through disruption? | Dependencies, controls and test evidence |
Original study prompts for the six assigned themes
- Artificial intelligence
- Question to investigate in the reading: Which dependencies can produce common behavior?
- Evidence to record: Mechanism, affected activity and stated uncertainty
- Private credit
- Question to investigate in the reading: Where are leverage and valuation dependencies?
- Evidence to record: Exposure perimeter and data limitations
- Geopolitical risk
- Question to investigate in the reading: How does the shock reach the financial exposure?
- Evidence to record: Transmission channel and scenario assumptions
- Government debt
- Question to investigate in the reading: How do financing conditions interact with stability?
- Evidence to record: Balance-sheet links and policy context
- Digital assets
- Question to investigate in the reading: What claim and process are actually changing?
- Evidence to record: Legal, market and operational distinctions
- Digital resilience
- Question to investigate in the reading: Can critical operations continue through disruption?
- Evidence to record: Dependencies, controls and test evidence
Separate the paper’s claim from your application
The assigned FSB AI report discusses financial-stability channels including third-party dependencies, model and data risks, and potential correlated behavior. That provides a basis for asking how concentration might arise. It does not establish the probability or loss amount for a particular fictional lender. Keep the source-supported mechanism separate from assumptions introduced in an exercise.
Consider an original study case in which three lenders use one provider for an important model input. A provider outage could interrupt their decisions at the same time. To assess the case, ask what the input controls, whether an alternative is available, how long switching takes and whether the alternative shares the same upstream dependency. The number of lenders alone does not quantify the systemic effect.
Write an answer in three parts: the reading’s relevant claim with a section reference, the case-specific transmission mechanism, and a limitation or condition that could change the conclusion. For example, a tested independent fallback may reduce the shared outage channel without resolving model bias. The companion reading-integration lesson develops a full evidence-to-decision exercise; this page remains the directory and study framework.
Can I replace the assigned papers with recent headlines?
Headlines can supply context, but they do not establish coverage of GARP’s assigned material. Use the exam-year list and learning objectives as the study scope, then label additional reporting as supplementary context.
Why are there more papers than themes?
A theme can contain more than one assigned paper. For 2026, the directory lists eight papers across six themes. Maintain a separate record for each paper so that its claims, scope and limitations remain traceable.
Try a changed assumption
Does a paper published in 2023 become irrelevant merely because the exam is in 2026?
Show answer and reasoning
No. Inclusion in the prescribed exam-year list is the relevant criterion. Publication year alone does not tell you whether a reading is assigned.
Original learning check. No email or account needed.
Should I replace assigned readings with market news?
No. News can supply application examples, but the official exam-year reading list and learning objectives determine the prescribed material.
Sources and scope
Links checked 2026-10-10. GARP establishes exam scope; the technical references support the methods identified below. These are selected study notes and original examples, not complete curriculum coverage or official exam questions.
- GARP FRM study materials and 2026 learning objectives
Exam-domain scope and the official route to the annual learning objectives. This page does not certify coverage of every reading.
- GARP 2026 Current Issues required readings
The six published reading themes and their linked papers. The application prompts here are our own.
- FSB: financial stability implications of AI (2024)
The prescribed paper identifies common provider dependencies, model/data risks and potential correlated behaviour. Our lender scenarios are illustrative.
GARP labels the private-credit paper February 2025; its link resolves to the March 2025 BIS Quarterly Review.
Prepared by MiloPrep editorial team. MiloPrep is independent of GARP. References do not imply endorsement or independent review of these notes.