Do you know of any industry recognised finance-based exams in England?

I want to do this myself (not paid through a company) so need to know of any exams that can be achieved in my own time and are not too expensive. Anything like tax, insurance, investment etc would be helpful.

There are a lot of these but they are all very expensive. They are usually run by industry bodies - for example the Associate of Chartered Accountants.

One of the best recognised in the city is the CFA - Chartered Financial Accountant - but it is quite hard and expensive, although you can do it in stages so you could do the first one yourself and then get a company to sponsor you through the rest.

The best thing to do is find out what kind of job you want and if possible speak to people in those companies and ask what they would want to see if you were to do one. In my mind (having done the ACT qualification) they are expensive and time consuming and are no subsititute for hands-on work experience. Check with prospective employers how much a qualification really means to them before you spend time and money on it.

Some qualifications I have come across are: ACA, ACCA, CFA, ACT, CIMA, MBA, Masters of Finance.

For insurance - contact the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) who have qualifications ranging from GCSE to Masters.

If giving financial advice there are certain exams that you MUST have passed. Suggest you look at the FSA website.

There's a website called www.finysis.net. It doesn't do exams, but it sells e-books and software teaching you how to analyze various types of company. Their products are cheap too.