CIMA's income for last year totalled £50.9m, an 8.1% increase on its 2011 revenues, according to its latest annual report and financial accounts.

These show that most of CIMA's 2012 income (89.8%) came from subscriptions and exams. The number of member s topped 91,000 and subscriptions rose by 8.6% to £18.5m.

Student numbers also increased to over 112,000, with CIMA recruiting a record 29,322 new students, nearly 11% more than in 2011. The institute reported particularly high growth in numbers from the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, South East Asia and the new entrants to the EU. This saw student subscription and exemption income increase by 8.8% to £13.4m.

Income from examinations increased by 12.5% to £13.8m. The main driver for this is identified in CIMA's annual report as an increase in the number of papers passed per student, which went up in 2012 compared to the decline of previous years.

The annual report shows that UK revenue continues to dominate CIMA's revenue streams although the proportion is reducing from 64% in 2010 and 63% in 2011 to reach 60% in 2012. CIMA says it expects this downward trend to continue as it seeks to develop new markets.

Net operating expenditure was up by 6.2% in the year, to £49.4m. CIMA says this was largely down to investments in making improvements to the way it communicates with students, as well as a new partnership with Pearson VUE to develop a global network of examination centres.