The region is home, permanent and temporary, to numerous expat professionals, many of who require financial advice both when they fly out to their new domicile and on an ongoing basis.
Those in the worst affected countries were repatriated by their respective governments during the height of the unrest, but since then although Libya remains a no-go area, expats have been returning to their homes and their jobs across the region.
Fortunately, some countries have remained rock solid. Qatar and the UAE, where we have offices in Doha and Dubai, have far different social systems to the states elsewhere in the region in which the unrest occurred and have been little affected by the recent troubles.
Indeed, Qatar in particular has been booming over the past few months, in the wake of its successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Visa issuance procedures in Qatar have been accelerated to meet growing demand for foreign workers, who are required to see the many infrastructure projects planned in Qatar over the coming years come to fruition in the run up to the tournament.
Permanent presence
What is important for the international financial advice market is for reputable companies to have a permanent presence on the ground, fully regulated, having gone through all the necessary stages and fully met the requirements of the regulator in those jurisdictions.
The industry has suffered over the years from ‘jet in, jet out’ financial advisers who come to a jurisdiction, present a few seminars, sell a few products and then leave their ‘clients’ in the lurch.
They provide neither a contact on the ground nor take them through the holistic financial planning approach that ensures the products the client is buying are the right ones for them and their individual needs.
It is important that as an industry despite the troubles we do not leave the expats in the region high and dry and served only by the carpetbaggers.
Bahrain, for example, is one of the countries where there is unrest, with riots in the streets and subsequent curfews applied. It is a jurisdiction where we are going through the process to obtain a Central Bank Licence to establish a permanent presence in the country. Given the ongoing unrest, it would have been easy to put everything on hold or pull out altogether, but the country will still require a sizeable expat community who will need financial advice.
The curfew has since been lifted, businesses are beginning to operate close to normal and travel warnings are being lifted. Also, having postponed the Bahrain Grand Prix in March because of the unrest, the FIA has just given the go ahead for the Formula 1 race to be staged there on 30 October.
Given that the licence from the Central Bank of Bahrain can take six months or more to complete and obtain, by the time we come to establishing a regulated presence in Bahrain we hope the country will have fully stabilised.
Despite recent events, there are people across the region who will need decent financial advice. If you have a commitment to being an international player in this market then a certain degree of uncertainty comes with the territory and has to be factored in to your business plan.
