The CB series builds the business, finance, and economics literacy that actuarial technical work sits on top of. CB1 covers business finance — how companies raise money, structure themselves, and report their financial position. CB2 covers business economics — how markets, prices, and the wider economy behave, and how government policy shapes them. Together, these two subjects are what let an actuary read a company’s annual report, understand why interest rates are moving, and make sense of the commercial and regulatory environment insurers actually operate in — context that every later specialist subject assumes you already have.