Global hiring for financial services and fintech companies

Quick answers

The five questions compliance and people leaders at regulated firms ask first.

Why financial services and fintech firms employ across borders

The drivers are commercial and regulatory at once.

Specialist talent is contested everywhere. Payments engineers, financial crime analysts, quants, risk modellers and compliance professionals are scarce in London, Singapore and New York at once. Poland, Portugal, India and Ireland hold deep pools with regulated firm experience.

Operations run around the clock. Transaction monitoring, fraud queues, onboarding and disputes cannot close at six. Nearshore and offshore operations centres cover the clock without tripling headquarters headcount.

Licences are local. Serving customers in a new market usually means a local licence or partner, and the regulator expects local substance: people, control functions and a place of business it can visit.

Unit economics matter again. Investors look at cost to serve per customer. Building operations and engineering capacity at a lower fully loaded cost is one of the few levers that does not touch the product or the risk appetite.

Expansion outruns entities. A firm licensed in one market wins a partnership in another and needs people there next month. The local entity arrives long after the first hire.

The roles and where they sit

Each market links to its country guide.

Hiring routes compared

The routes differ on what a regulated firm cares about: who can hold a licensed function, how the regulator sees the arrangement, and whether your pay and conduct rules reach the person.

What a financial services hire actually costs

These are illustrative planning figures, not quoted rates and not statutory percentages for any country. Real numbers depend on the market, the salary and the role's regulatory overhead.

Worked example, illustrative only. A payments operations analyst in an EU market on €40,000 gross, with a 20% contribution load and 3% in mandatory benefits, costs roughly €49,200. Add the EOR fee, screening and a managed device and you are planning around €55,000.

The five traps that catch financial services firms

These are the failures we get called in to fix. A regulator or auditor usually finds them first.

1. A regulated role in an EOR seat

Regulators approve, certify or register individuals for specific functions: senior managers, money laundering reporting officers, certified staff, licensed representatives, advisers and traders. Those regimes assume the regulated entity employs, supervises and can discipline the person, and several require it outright. An EOR employee is employed by the EOR, so an approved function in that seat creates a gap the regulator will see at the next review. The firm cannot show control, the person cannot be validly appointed, and a role the firm treats as filled may legally be vacant. Map every role before hiring: engineering, product, data, operations, support and most analysts can be EOR employed; anything requiring approval, certification or a licence sits in the licensed entity.

2. The EOR is an outsourcing arrangement

Outsourcing frameworks in the UK, the EU, Singapore and elsewhere define outsourcing broadly: a third party performing an activity the firm would otherwise perform itself. An EOR employing your operations team fits. So the arrangement needs what your outsourcing policy requires: a materiality assessment, due diligence on the provider, a written agreement giving you and your regulator audit and access rights, data terms, continuity and a documented exit plan. Material or important outsourcing usually has to be notified to the regulator and entered on the outsourcing register. Firms that treat the EOR as a payroll vendor find the gap at a supervisory visit. The fix is procedural and belongs before the first hire.

3. Deferral, malus and clawback do not travel by themselves

Remuneration rules for material risk takers require part of variable pay to be deferred, part paid in instruments, and all of it subject to malus and clawback. Those are your firm's obligations, but the employee's contract is with the EOR. If the local contract does not carry deferral schedules, malus triggers and clawback terms, the firm is in breach and has no contractual route to recover anything. Then local law intervenes: several countries restrict deductions from wages, cap recovery periods or require specific consent before an employer can claw back paid amounts. Draft the remuneration terms into the local contract with wording local law enforces, and confirm in writing which policies the EOR applies on your instruction.

4. KYC data, AML and where the analyst sits

Customer due diligence files, transaction data and suspicious activity work are the most sensitive data a firm holds. Data protection law governs any transfer out of the EU or the UK. Banking secrecy rules in some markets restrict who may see customer data at all. A few countries require payment or customer data to be stored locally, which limits what an offshore team can access. The money laundering reporting function and the decision to file a report usually have to sit in jurisdiction. The workable model is tiered: offshore analysts work alerts and cases through a virtual desktop with least privilege, no local storage and full logging, while decisions, filings and regulator contact stay onshore. Write the access matrix per role.

5. A salesperson abroad can trigger a licence, not only a tax bill

For most companies the risk of a salesperson abroad is permanent establishment: corporate tax on profits attributed to someone habitually concluding contracts in your name. Financial services firms carry a second, sharper risk. Soliciting customers, promoting products or arranging transactions in a country is often itself a regulated activity requiring a licence there, and reverse solicitation exemptions are narrow. A relationship manager who prospects, pitches and negotiates in a market where you are not licensed can put the firm in breach of that market's financial services law before any contract is signed. An EOR does not change that analysis. Keep origination inside licensed entities, limit EOR employed client facing staff to servicing, and write the boundary into the job description.

Where to hire, country by country

Every market below has a full country guide covering costs, payroll, leave and termination.

How Dryft works with financial services and fintech firms

1. Map the roles first. Send us the org chart for the market. We mark which roles can be EOR employed and which need the licensed entity, before anyone is recruited.
2. Supply the outsourcing pack. Due diligence documentation, audit and access rights, data terms, continuity and exit provisions, in the form your policy and regulator expect.
3. Draft the contract to your code. Deferral, malus, clawback, conduct rules and confidentiality carried into the local contract with wording local law enforces.
4. Screen before day one. Background, credit, sanctions and reference checks to your standard, with records you can produce.
5. Onboard in days. Offer, local contract, registrations, benefits, payroll and managed device run in parallel.
6. Run payroll monthly. Global payroll, contributions, filings, deferred pay tracking and local payslips on one invoice.
7. Transfer when you are licensed. When a market gets its own licensed entity, employment moves across with continuity. Recruiting and managed operations teams use the same infrastructure.

FAQ

This guide is general information, not legal, tax, regulatory or immigration advice. Every cost figure here is an illustrative planning range, not a quoted rate for any country. Financial regulation and employment law differ by jurisdiction and change regularly. Confirm the position for your licences and your countries with a qualified adviser before acting. Last reviewed September 2026.