Islamic property finance fintech Offa has received authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide home purchase plans for customers in the UK.
Home purchase plans are the Sharia-compliant alternative to conventional residential mortgages.
The authorisation will allow Offa to become the third active provider of HPPs in the market.
Offa Money chairman Riaz Husain says: “Receiving this authorisation from the FCA will provide reassurance to our customers that Offa is adhering strictly to regulations as we provide high quality, faith-based Islamic home finance products to aspiring property investors and landlords across the country.”
The lender’s executive chairman Sultan Choudhury adds: “By combining our teams’ decades of industry experience with the latest technology, we are bringing Islamic finance into the 21st century, leaving behind the onerous paperwork and cumbersome systems that many customers have typically had to suffer in the past gaining this important authorisation is another step toward achieving that.”
Offa is the first Sharia-compliant bridging finance provider and last year introduced what was said to be the first Sharia-compliant buy-to-let (BTL) product to the UK.
The company recently acquired Bank of Ireland’s Alburaq Sharia-compliant home finance portfolio in a deal utilising a unique funding structure, including more than 350 home purchase plans.
