Financial Services
The financial services industry faces a unique set of circumstances.
Globalization presents myriad opportunities, but unexpected disruptions—whether from COVID, Brexit, political turmoil, or rapidly changing immigration policies worldwide—can threaten or even derail the most promising initiatives.
This environment, full of promise yet fraught with uncertainty, requires financial institutions to deploy and redeploy employees across the globe at a moment’s notice—with minimal gaps in activity, impeccable compliance, and the utmost care for every individual in the workforce.
Fragomen offers unique value to our financial services clients: a deep-seated understanding of the financial services industry and related sectors (e.g., fintech) and sophisticated, global compliance services, both of which are unmatched in the industry.
Our clients value us for:
Industry-specific experience
Many of Fragomen’s longest client relationships are with companies in the financial services sector. We have represented traditional financial institutions and investment funds for decades; as the sector evolved, we added insurance companies, financial technology companies, and newer, non-traditional entrants to our clientele.
This depth of experience is a prerequisite for understanding the immigration risks that beset financial services companies and providing them with benchmarking on industry-wide issues and ultimately, the highest-quality support.
Global perspective
Financial services companies seek business opportunities that require employees to move quickly across multiple jurisdictions, often without a common geographical locus.
Because we represent clients in more than 170 countries, we possess practical insight into the immigration challenges of nearly every jurisdiction in the world. Only a firm that boasts our global scope can help manage the endless possible combinations—and complications—of today’s immigration landscape.
Cross-industry intelligence
The variety of industries we represent is unmatched by any other provider. We therefore have deep industry experience across a wide spectrum of clientele. When a client in one sector creates a novel approach to an immigration challenge, we put that insight to work for other clients in our roster. This is especially relevant as traditional financial services companies find themselves competing with newer technology companies for talent.
Just as with our financial services clients, we have represented some of the most innovative technology leaders for decades, and have successfully utilized the knowledge gleaned from these long-standing relationships to partner with our financial services clients and strategize around a constantly evolving work environment, which in many cases is being driven by the very same influential technology institutions that we represent.
Dedication to Employee Experience
From executives and managers to technology experts and other new categories of workers, employees are the most important asset in the financial services industry. Fragomen offers clients a singular firm culture built on client service throughout our 55+ offices worldwide, providing a high-quality, reliable, consistent, and predictable employee experience regardless of role or location.
Compliance counsel
Intricate compliance requirements pose the single greatest threat to our financial services clients’ success from an immigration standpoint. When mismanaged or misunderstood, business visas, business travel regulations, licensing, work permits, and other local requirements can present endless compliance risks.
Fragomen untangles the complexity with analytical matrices that clarify what work can be performed by employees through travel programs in every relevant jurisdiction. These tools become an integral part of business planning, shaping overall strategy, and reducing the likelihood of audits.
Managing a changing workforce: The financial services workforce is changing rapidly. In addition to traditional categories, financial institutions are relying more and more on technology staff. Financial technology companies, in particular, face immigration challenges that are entirely novel to other companies in the sector. Our cross-industry experience helps our clients deploy the right mix of employees across jurisdictions with speed and flexibility.
Contingency planning
Natural disasters, pandemics, political upheaval, the rearrangement of decades-old economic agreements: Turmoil and disruption recognize no borders.
Clients rely on our global perspective on immigration to prepare for every and any business contingency, including large-scale loss of operations, insolvencies, and loss of communications.
Sound business counsel
In a global enterprise, workforce mobility is a crucial component of business strategy. Fragomen is a valued partner at the earliest stages of project planning. With our assistance, clients do more than just react to immigration challenges; they use them to create and maximize opportunities.
Focused service for the long haul
Fragomen focuses specifically on providing the industry’s best immigration services. We are not forced by audit restrictions or regulations to abandon representations because we offer other, unrelated services; our clients are never forced into costly and time-consuming searches for new counsel.
Comprehensive business travel solutions
Markets are beginning to recover from the COVID pandemic, and travel restrictions are being lifted—albeit fitfully and inconsistently. As global travel opens again, managing the complexities of short-term business travel will become more challenging.
We build programs for our clients to maintain end-to-end oversight of business travel and cross-border moves, from initial assessment through visa applications, including compliance filings in the travel destination if necessary.
