Challenge.
After establishing a successful banking operation in Tajikistan, Ayan Capital sought to expand into the UK market. Lacking strong familiarity with UK regulatory requirements, the firm required support to understand how it could deliver Shariah-compliant car finance solutions to the private hire sector.
Objective.
Ayan Capital’s longer-term objective is to become a UK bank; however, initially they wanted to find the quickest route to market to enable them to provide car finance in the UK.
Solution.
Following Cosegic recommendations, a phased regulatory strategy was agreed. Initially, Cosegic supported Ayan Capital with FCA registration under the Money Laundering Regulations, allowing them to start servicing business customers.
Building on this success, Ayan Capital moved on to apply for FCA Authorisation as a Lender in order to expand their offerings to retail customers. Cosegic provided detailed advice and support across creditworthiness assessments, forbearance frameworks, and mapping the end-to-end customer journey in line with regulation. Cosegic also engaged with the FCA alongside Ayan Capital throughout the application.
Now FCA Authorised, Ayan Capital continues to work with Cosegic under a monthly retainer. Support includes ongoing compliance, Financial Promotions reviews, assistance with RegData returns, and the use of MyCosegic, Cosegic’s reg-tech platform, for online staff training. In addition, Cosegic continues to advise Ayan Capital on regulatory frameworks to support future growth plans, including discussions around Variation of Permissions.
