Soliman Consulting Services
Advisory

Counsel from someone who has run it, not modelled it.

A small number of engagements where operating experience changes the answer, across the UK, US, and Middle East.

How I work

I take a small number of engagements where operating experience changes the answer. Most begin as a strategic retainer or a scoped project, and many clients come through direct introduction. The practice operates across the UK, US, and Middle East. Full credentials and a due-diligence pack are available on request.

Practice A

Digital money transformation

For governments, central banks, banks, and large institutions.

I help institutions design and operate regulated money that survives contact with reality, drawing on operating experience in both capital markets and regulated digital assets.

  • Stablecoin and tokenised-deposit strategy and operating-model design
  • Reserve management, attestation, and custody architecture
  • Blockchain selection and multichain approval: Layer 1 due diligence, deployment strategy, and securing supervisor sign-off for issuance on new chains. I secured NYDFS approval to issue GYEN and ZUSD across Stellar, Solana, and Klaytn, plus Layer 2s including Arbitrum and Optimism, and I can make warm introductions to the major protocols
  • Crisis and resilience design: de-peg response, banking-rail redundancy, freeze-and-seize protocol, supervisor reporting
  • CBDC, stablecoin, and tokenised-deposit trade-offs for monetary authorities, anchored on the monetary-sovereignty question
  • Independent quality assessment using the StableCheck methodology

The crisis-resilience work is rare. Few advisors have personally executed a freeze-and-seize or filed an incident report with a live regulator. I have.

Compliance and financial-crime advisory

Running a regulated issuer means owning these functions in production and answering to a supervisor for them. That is where advisors who have only read the rules come up short. I ran this stack live under NYDFS supervision, through an on-chain attack and concurrent litigation, so I can help you build and operate:

  • Transaction monitoring and blockchain analytics: selecting and configuring the leading tools to your risk profile, not a generic checklist
  • Travel Rule compliance: FATF Recommendation 16, the interoperability problem between the leading solutions, and cross-border data exchange
  • Regulatory onboarding and client classification: KYC/KYB, jurisdictional permissioning, and counterparty due diligence with the leading onboarding systems
  • Sanctions and wallet screening, and ongoing customer due diligence
  • AML/CFT programmes designed to survive supervisory inspection, with SAR/STR filing and regulator reporting

FX and crypto prime brokerage advisory

For FX brokers, prime brokers, exchange groups, and firms building across traditional markets and digital assets.

Traditional and digital-asset market structure are converging. Banks are beginning to run bank-grade digital-asset prime brokerage, with credit intermediation and settlement inside established risk frameworks. Institutional venues now let clients post digital assets as collateral for FX and CFD trading. Tokenised real-world assets are moving toward mainstream settlement rails. The prime brokerage layer that has underpinned FX and equities for decades is being rebuilt for crypto, and most incumbents were not designed for it.

I work across both sides of that line, with direct operating experience. Twenty years in institutional FX and prime brokerage at Citi, IG Group, and Integral, and as founder of an FCA-regulated Prime of Prime. More recently, hands-on work building and running crypto prime brokerage, alongside four years operating a regulated stablecoin issuer under NYDFS supervision. Add a network across banks, regulated venues, market makers, and custodians, and the result is a rare vantage point on how these two worlds connect in practice. Full detail available on request.

Institutional: banks, exchange groups, and prime brokers.

  • Crypto prime brokerage structure: credit intermediation, margin, netting, and settlement models that meet institutional risk and compliance standards
  • Stablecoin and tokenised-cash settlement: regulated digital money for collateral movement, faster settlement cycles, and treasury
  • Tokenised real-world assets: where they meet existing custody, credit, and post-trade infrastructure
  • Liquidity and counterparty architecture across regulated crypto venues, non-bank market makers, and traditional prime brokers

Retail and mid-market: FX and CFD brokers moving into Web3.

  • Product strategy: crypto pairs, stablecoin funding and settlement, and the operating changes each forces on treasury, risk, and compliance
  • Liquidity provider and venue selection across FX and crypto
  • Stablecoin collateral and treasury design, built to stay defensible under supervision
  • Regulatory positioning across the boundary between broker licensing and crypto-asset permissions (FCA, MiCA and MiFID, VARA, ADGM FSRA)
Practice B

UAE market entry

For international financial-services, fintech, payments, and digital-asset firms establishing in the Emirates.

The UAE has positioned itself as the institutional digital-asset hub for the region. I help firms enter it with regulatory fluency and a credible local footing: senior strategy, not paperwork. My regulated background across three jurisdictions extends the same fluency to UK and US corridors.

  • Regulatory pathway selection across CBUAE, ADGM/FSRA, VARA, and DFSA, with engagement support
  • Go-to-market strategy, localisation, and commercial positioning
  • Institutional distribution and sales strategy
  • Vendor and partner selection: custody, banking, market making, technology
  • Senior introductions, governed by a clear independence policy

This is the strategic counsel a serious entrant needs, distinct from the company-formation and licensing logistics that other providers handle. Where that administrative work is needed, I coordinate or refer it.

Independence

My standing depends on relationships that crude commercialisation would destroy.

So I protect them deliberately. My standards-body, ACI committee, and policy roles stay independent of paid work. I disclose commercial interests, decline mandates that pit me against parties I am bound to, and treat my network as something deployed with consent rather than traded. Where I have an interest in a product or platform, I say so and step back from advising on its selection. Regulatory relationships are a matter of credibility and fluency, never of influence.

Most engagements start with a conversation.

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