From Rubber Stamp to Rule Maker
- Aug 6
- 3 min read
By Sacha Ali-Brown
For years, Noor Al-Naseri navigated the corporate labyrinth of finance and regulation with quiet precision. She earned her place at the table through discipline, discretion, and relentless work ethic. But like many women in banking, especially women of color, she learned the hard way that presence alone does not guarantee power.
“I did everything right,” Noor reflects. “I put in the hours, stayed composed, and got the seat. But more often than not, I was the only woman in the room and frequently the only woman of color.”
That seat, however, often came with an unspoken role: silent assent.
Noor recalls one moment that crystallized this truth. “A CEO looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘Just make it work. We’ve already done the deal.’ That’s when I realized—I wasn’t there to question or improve anything. I was there to legitimize decisions already made. To rubber stamp.”
That exchange marked a turning point. Noor, who had spent years in senior roles at FNZ, HSBC, and Barclays, decided that if she was going to be in the room, it would be to challenge the process, not just comply with it.
“I wasn’t hired to keep the machine humming,” she says. “I was hired to kick it. And maybe even redesign it.”
With more than 17 years of experience in compliance, governance, and financial rule-making, Noor had already helped sketch the internal frameworks that many fintech platforms run on today. But something deeper was stirring.
“Compliance rewards caution, not conviction,” she explains. “But real change doesn’t come from playing nice. It comes from asking uncomfortable questions: Who benefits from this rule? Who gets left out? Are we protecting people or protecting power?”
It was those questions that led her to write The Compliance Blueprint and The Regulatory Roadmap, two books that redefined how firms navigate financial regulation. “I couldn’t find the kind of ethical, courageous leadership this space so desperately needed,” Noor says. “So I wrote it.”
Her voice, once tempered for the sake of diplomacy, found amplification through the written word. The books sparked attention across the sector, earning her the 2023 Trailblazer of the Year award at the Women in FinTech Awards and invitations to contribute to policy consultations across Europe. She's now quoted regularly in major media outlets and has even been invited to 10 Downing Street to advise on regulatory innovation.
Yet Noor is clear: her journey isn’t about accolades. It’s about leverage.
“Regulators are rethinking everything. They’re no longer looking for people who follow rules. They want people who can rewrite them. And for the first time, women aren’t just being invited in. We’re being asked to lead.”
That shift, Noor says, comes with responsibility. “I’ve stepped into policy circles I never thought would include someone like me. And every time I take that seat, I remind myself: strength doesn’t come from being validated. It comes from showing up anyway, even without guarantees.”
Looking back, she admits there were times she stayed silent. “But doubt doesn’t mean you’re wrong,” she says. “It usually means you’re early.”
What sets Noor apart isn’t just her credentials. It’s her clarity.
“Courage isn’t performative,” she says. “It’s saying no when everyone else is nodding. It’s writing the uncomfortable truth. It’s refusing to shrink.”
When asked what advice she would give to other women navigating leadership and power in systems designed to keep them quiet, Noor doesn’t hesitate:
“Speak before you’re ready. Don’t wait to feel safe. Say the thing. Start the shift. You don’t need a permission slip to be powerful. You just need a pulse and a decision. I didn’t come this far to be a placeholder. I came to rebuild the system with courage, with clarity, and with other women who are done waiting. Let’s stop playing by the rules. Let’s start rewriting them.”
The era of silent consent is ending. Noor Al-Naseri is making sure of it.
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