How to book your RE5 exam in 2026: step by step

You book the RE5 through Moonstone, the exam body appointed by the FSCA, at faisexam.co.za. There are three registration channels: online, by phone on (021) 883 8000, or by email. Registration closes 11 working days before each exam, and payment of R1 300 must follow within 24 hours.

PassPath does not book exams and cannot hold a seat for you. What follows is the process as Moonstone publishes it, with the deadlines that actually cost people a sitting. Schedule figures quoted below come from the faisexam.co.za schedule captured on 9 August 2026; live availability changes daily.

Who administers the RE5 exam and where do you book it?

Moonstone administers the regulatory examinations on behalf of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, and all bookings go through its exam portal at faisexam.co.za. There is no alternative provider. Training companies, colleges and study platforms can prepare you, but none of them can register you or issue the result.

That distinction matters when you are searching. A query like "moonstone re5" or "moonstone booking re5" is looking for the exam body's portal. If you want the exam itself explained end to end first, read our complete RE5 exam guide.

How to register for the RE5, step by step

Step 1. Pick your channel. Online at faisexam.co.za is the fastest and shows you live seat counts. You can also phone (021) 883 8000 or 888 9796 on weekdays between 8am and 4pm, or email a completed registration form to faisexam@moonstoneinfo.co.za.

Step 2. Have your details ready. Registration asks for your ID or passport number, your personal and contact details, your professional details and your FSP number. Use the same name and ID number that appear on the identity document you will bring on the day, because a mismatch is the most common reason a candidate is turned away.

Step 3. Register at least 11 working days before the exam. This is the deadline most people miss. Registration closes 11 working days before each sitting, which in an ordinary week means more than two calendar weeks. A sitting three weeks away may already be closed to new registrations even if the portal shows seats. Count backwards from the date you want and add a buffer.

Step 4. Choose the sitting, not just the date. The portal lists each sitting with its remaining seat count. Two venues on the same morning can have very different availability, so select on seats as well as location.

Step 5. Pay within 24 hours. Payment must be made within 24 hours of registering or the booking is not confirmed, and you must use the EB invoice number as your payment reference. An unreferenced payment can sit unallocated while your provisional seat lapses.

Step 6. Keep the confirmation. Save the confirmation and the invoice. If your employer is reimbursing you or maintaining a competence register, that invoice is the record they will ask for.

What does it cost to book the RE5 exam?

R1 300, VAT inclusive, per examination per candidate. The fee is set by the FSCA, not by Moonstone, so it does not vary by venue, province or date.

A rewrite costs the same R1 300 per attempt. You do not need to re-register from scratch: you log in to the portal and rebook. There is no stated limit on how many times you may attempt the exam, so the real constraint is your DOFA deadline, which requires a supervised representative to complete the applicable regulatory exam within two years of their date of first appointment. Each failed attempt spends R1 300 and burns weeks of that clock. The full cost breakdown sets out what preparation adds on top.

Do you need an FSP number to write the RE5?

No. You do not need an FSP number to write the RE5. People book the exam before they are appointed, between jobs, or while deciding whether to enter the industry at all, and Moonstone accepts those bookings.

The registration form does ask for professional details including an FSP number, which is what causes the confusion. If you are not attached to a financial services provider yet, complete the fields that apply to you and leave the FSP field as not applicable. What an FSP number changes is not your eligibility to write, it is whether your result can be recorded against a representative appointment afterwards.

Where and when can you write the RE5?

Moonstone runs sittings on a rolling schedule roughly four months ahead rather than a fixed annual calendar, so new dates open as older ones fall away. The snapshot captured on 9 August 2026 listed 579 sittings across 34 venues in all nine provinces, spread over 74 exam days from 25 August to 11 December 2026.

Venues are concentrated in Gauteng and the Western Cape, and they are mostly church and community halls, guesthouses and clubs rather than dedicated test centres. Start times are standardised at 09:00, 09:30 or 13:30, and afternoon sittings are rare, so plan on a morning. Where you can write, province by province covers the geography and travel planning.

Seats do run out. 135 of the 579 captured sittings already had zero seats left, and 144 had fewer than five. Popular venues fill weeks ahead, not days, and the 11 working day registration cut-off closes the rest.

For live dates, venues and seat counts, use the full RE5 exam date schedule, which is filterable by province and refreshed monthly. Key individuals should check RE1 exam dates instead. Confirm anything you are about to pay for against the faisexam.co.za portal itself.

What happens on exam day and when do results arrive?

Arrive early with the identity document you registered under. The RE5 is 50 multiple-choice questions over 2 hours, closed book, written under invigilation at the venue you selected. The pass mark is 65%, which on a 50 question paper means 33 correct answers, or 66%. That arithmetic is why you will see both numbers quoted; they describe the same threshold.

Moonstone allows a maximum lead time of 20 working days from the exam date to the release of results, and candidates often receive them sooner. Budget for that gap when you are counting backwards from a deadline, because a rewrite needs its own 11 working day registration window on top of it. If the result does not go your way, our guide on passing the RE5 rewrite covers what to change before you pay again. The full results guide covers how you are notified, remarks and appeals, and the rewrite clock.

How do you book the RE1 as a key individual?

The same portal, the same three channels, the same R1 300 fee and the same 11 working day cut-off. The RE1 is the examination for key individuals rather than representatives, and it is a longer paper: 80 multiple-choice questions, where 65% means 52 correct. In the 9 August snapshot, 569 of the 579 sittings offered the RE1, so availability is very close to the RE5's.

If you are not certain the RE1 is the exam you need, read how to become a key individual in South Africa and then the complete RE1 exam guide. Booking the wrong paper costs you R1 300 and a sitting.

Prepare before you book, not after

Most people do this in the wrong order. They book a date, then start studying, then discover three weeks out that the syllabus is broader than they assumed. At that point they either write unprepared or forfeit the fee.

The 11 working day cut-off changes the planning arithmetic too. Your real deadline is not the exam date you are counting toward, it is more than two weeks earlier. If you have a DOFA deadline, work backwards from it: subtract up to 20 working days for results, then another 11 working days to register for a rewrite, and you can see how little slack a late first attempt leaves. The full countdown is here.

So establish where you stand first, then book a date you can realistically be ready for. PassPath's free readiness check takes about 15 minutes, needs no card, and scores you against every FSCA qualifying criterion the exam tests. It returns a readiness score and a topic-by-topic red-to-green heat map, so you can see which sections would sink you before you commit R1 300. If you would rather work through the reasoning yourself, am I ready for the RE5? sets out the same test in prose.

PassPath is an independent study platform. The RE1 and RE5 are written through Moonstone; PassPath is not affiliated with Moonstone or the FSCA.