Ashraf Aly, who most recently led compliance at cross-border payments company TerraPay, has joined NALA as its Global Head of Compliance & Risk. He brings more than a decade of experience in compliance and regulation across fintech, consumer lending and financial services.
Aly will lead compliance and risk across NALA, its consumer remittance app, and Rafiki, its business payments platform. He will also oversee the company’s money laundering reporting officers (MLROs) in the UK, EU, US and Canada.
Stablecoins are changing how money moves across borders, and the rules for them are still being written. “Every bank, partner and regulator we work with trusts us with their customers’ money. Ashraf is here to make sure we keep earning that trust,” CEO Benjamin Fernandes said.
At TerraPay, Aly was Group Head of Compliance for a network that settles with banks and wallets in 158 countries. He joined in September 2022 from Careem, where he spent a year as director of compliance.
Before that, he spent four years at UK lender iwoca as head of compliance, MLRO and data protection officer. His earlier roles include RateSetter, PwC’s financial services regulatory practice, the Financial Ombudsman Service and Lloyds TSB.
Read: Businesses drive Nigeria’s stablecoin market, but a few accounts dominate the flows
The hire comes as NALA widens its business. Fernandes founded the company in Tanzania in 2017 as a local money transfer service and moved into international remittances in 2021. It is now headquartered in New York.
Rafiki launched in March 2024 and has processed $1 billion in volume, according to the company. Its customers include MoneyGram, TransferGo and Cadana, and NALA says it connects to 249 banks and 26 mobile money services across 16 countries.
In May 2026, NALA secured a credit facility of up to $50 million from Liquidity, through Mars Growth Capital, to pre-fund its stablecoin payments. In January, it partnered with Noah to build a stablecoin settlement network.
NALA holds more than ten licences globally, according to Launch Base Africa. A job listing posted in August for the role said the new head would help take its US licences from the current states to more than 30.
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Last updated: November 3, 2026
