Yana Afanasieva is a world leading authority in FinTech compliance and regulations with a particular focus on early stage startups.
After years of experience with Amazon and PayPal, Yana became an entrepreneur on a mission to showcase how compliance can operate as an agile and scalable function within FinTech, and developed her unique methodology – the famous Just-In-Time Compliance approach (which is reversing the pains and mistakes of the traditional "Just-in-Case" compliance).
Our premise is that Compliance projects should be managed and measured as profit centres, using the ROI method, because compliance decisions very often directly impact processed volumes, TAM and time to market.
We can project manage your end-to-end license applications, and help you reach your licensing, partnership, scalability or white-label arrangements targets. We strongly believe that the future of compliance is all about doing things just in time, automation, standardization, dashboards, risk-based monitoring, and scaling (and not in collecting utility bills or adding more people).
We also offer a number of digital programs and trainings under the brand Compliance That Makes Sense, supporting FinTech business owners and compliance professionals by offering templates, discussing case studies, providing feedback, and sharing best industry practices. FinTech Compliance Self-Starter Package is our most popular signature offer allowing you to jump-start your FinTech compliance in days. Remember: The worst possible mistake in compliance is starting from scratch. Re-use what works for others!
Why trust us with your compliance?
Since 2017, Competitive Compliance has worked with prominent FinTech pioneers such as bitFlyer, Cryptopay, Banxa, Mara, TenX, BitPesa / Aza Finance, Chainium / WeOwn, VNX, LCX, Lirium, and a number of other industry leaders, and helped them build up scalable compliance programs and secure over a dozen of financial licenses, secure partnerships, and grow their businesses in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, UK, Singapore, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Spain, Poland, UAE, Hong Kong, and several other jurisdictions.
Competitive Compliance is your service provider and a member of your team – all at the same time. We know and understand your business and your product and can be fully hands-on, but we also know what others in the industry are doing and what the emerging best practices are.
After years of successful experience with multiple FinTech startups, we have never seen an approved license application or a large scale FinTech expansion or product launch project where everything was ready and 100% compliant from day one. There are always trade-offs, missing things, and plans to improve over time. Yana's "secret" to FinTech compliance is to manage it as an iterative agile tech project, where you define your next priorities, understand your risks, focus only on the most critical issues at each point in time, test ideas, and keep continuous and open dialogue with regulators and auditors.
"Fintech Startup Compliance Pro Certification experience.
In a world of endless regulatory reports, audits, partner due diligences, incidents, documentation updates, and licensing, I am somehow not losing focus and am always able to do the right thing at the right time by applying Yana’s just-in-time method. It's important to note that this certification isn't a quick fix for personal change. It's more of a journey, taking several months of effort to adopt the right mindset.
Another great thing is that it doesn't treat compliance in isolation. Compliance professionals dream, burn out, get sick, have feelings, and want to work on great stuff. Yana's coaching combines compliance expertise and addresses both the technical and human aspects of the profession. It's been a significant help for me, and I think it could be for others too."
"I’ve got so much to share about Yana and her impact on my professional journey! About a year ago, I randomly stumbled upon Yana's podcast just by searching ‘compliance’ in Spotify, and I got hooked instantly. I couldn't wait for the next episode each week; it was like a revelation to me. I come from a legal background, and my mindset was all about being conservative, risk-averse, and disconnected from the business.
But then Yana's podcast changed everything. I was shocked when I first heard that compliance should genuinely care about the business, understand marketing, care about conversions. It hit me like a lightning bolt - "Wait, aren't we the second line of defense, independent from the business and guarding company from the risk?" It took me a little time to realize that I had been wrong all along, even with my four CAMS certificates feeling useless and like a waste of money (despite some companies still requiring them!).
Before long, I discovered Yana's concept of 'business-like and just in time compliance,' and it was like magic. Suddenly, compliance was being heard, invited to important meetings, and kept in the loop about product changes way ahead of time. We became trusted partners to the business, no longer just the department of 'NO.' It's crazy to think about how far we've come. From a company in its 'age of innocence,' with undocumented growth, to a compliance function that's now a 'leverage' for the company. We're securing crucial partnerships, opening bank accounts, obtaining licenses and authorizations, and acing audits.
Yana's guidance has been invaluable. I wholeheartedly recommend her products, especially the Compliance Collective. They have been one of the absolute best investments in my professional career. Yana rocks!"
"It’s rare that you come across standout talent like Yana. I had the pleasure of working with her for nearly three years at BitPesa (now AZA) and Founders Bank collectively, we often collaborate closely on FinTech projects with heavy compliance requirements. I am always impressed by Yana's ability to bridge the gap between scalable technical solutions and solid compliance leadership and guidance—effortlessly. That skill often takes years to develop, but it seemed to come perfectly naturally. I always enjoy working with Yana, as a team member or a leader, Yana earns my highest recommendation."
"Yana is an outstanding Compliance and Regulatory Risk professional. I've learnt so much from her working with her in the executive team. Her risk-managed yet business friendly approach balances customer needs, technical requirements and regulatory obligations in a manner that turns compliance into a business advantage. Her knowledge of regulatory environments, licensing, risk and AML controls allowed our team to push products that nobody else could match while keeping bad actors and fraudulent transactions well below industry benchmarks. I highly recommend having her guidance and expertise on your team at any stage of your business."
"Yana is an incredibly knowledgeable, experienced regulatory & compliance consultant with whom I had the pleasure of working for several years when I was the COO of AZA, an emerging markets fintech company. I especially appreciated her versatility as a consultant - not only did she roll up her sleeves and lead tactical projects such as the re-authorisation of our UK and EU payment licenses (which involved a lot of policy writing), but also added long-term strategic value by coaching our Legal & Compliance Team to prepare for presentations to regulators at various Central Banks across Africa."
"Yana has incredible depth of knowledge on the compliance and regulatory needs in the Fintech and Crypto space across the UK and Europe. She has provided the highest level of insight and been very proactive to help us achieve our company goals."
"Yana is an outstanding and seasoned compliance & regulatory professional who has extensive experience and knowledge in crypto and fintech in general. She is one of the most valuable partner for our strategic advisory from compliance point of view. As her company name suggests, if you want your compliance team to be “competitive”, she is the best person to speak to."
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