NALA, a global stablecoin payments company, has appointed Ashraf Aly as its Global Head of Compliance & Risk. Ashraf will lead compliance and risk across the NALA app and Rafiki, NALA’s stablecoin payments infrastructure for banks and enterprises.
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Who Ashraf is
Ashraf has spent more than 15 years making regulated financial businesses safe to scale. Most recently he was Group Head of Compliance at TerraPay, a global cross-border payments network that settles with banks and mobile wallets in 158 countries, where he spearheaded TerraPay’s proprietary monitoring and screening platform, TerraPay Lens. It is the closest thing to what we are building with Rafiki: money moving across borders on stablecoin rails, through banks and wallets, under many regulators at once.
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Before TerraPay he was Director of Compliance at Careem, building compliance for a fast-scaling consumer app across emerging markets, close to what the NALA app does for our customers. Before that he spent four years as Head of Compliance, MLRO and DPO at iwoca, an FCA-regulated UK lender. As MLRO he held personal regulatory accountability for the firm's anti-money laundering controls, so he knows what it means to answer to a regulator directly.
Earlier in his career he worked in PwC's Financial Services Regulatory Practice and at the Financial Ombudsman Service, so he has seen compliance from the regulator's side and the customer's side. He also worked at RateSetter, began his career at Lloyds TSB and trained in law.
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What he’ll do at NALA
Ashraf will own our global compliance strategy across anti-money laundering, sanctions, consumer protection, licensing and financial crime. He’ll lead our compliance officers across the UK, EU, US and Canada and run our enterprise risk framework, reporting to our Founder and CEO, Benjamin Fernandes.
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Why it matters
Stablecoins are becoming the settlement layer for cross-border payments, and new rules for them are arriving in the US, the UK and Europe. The banks and enterprises we work with need that held to the same standard as any regulated payment. Strong compliance is how we earn their trust, and it's what lets us bring Rafiki to more of them and open new corridors safely.Â
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“Stablecoins are changing how money moves across borders, and the banks we work with need that done to the highest standard. Ashraf has cleared that bar at global scale, at TerraPay and as an MLRO in the UK. He knows how to help a business scale without cutting corners, which is exactly what we need as Rafiki takes on larger enterprise contracts and NALA expands into new markets.”
Benjamin Fernandes, Founder and CEO, NALA
“Stablecoins are the biggest change to cross-border payments in a generation, but they only work when banks, partners and regulators can trust every transaction. I'm excited to join Benji and the team to build a compliance function that lets NALA grow fast and grow safely.”
Ashraf Aly, Global Head of Compliance & Risk, NALA
Welcome to the team, Ashraf.
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