Monira's Finance Blogs

What kind of man is named ‘the greatest conman of all time’? The documentary The Madoff Hustle: This world attempts to answer the question above, as they explore who Bernie Madoff was by interviewing his victims as well as his peers.  The documentary begins with the story of Bill Foxton a glorified war veteran who happened to lose his life savings because of the Bernie Madoff con, which ultimately led to his death as he committed suicide. This story drew me in as it showed that many from all walks of life were drawn to Bernie Madoff and his con, even an author who published a book on gullibility was conned out of thousands (I know it is harsh, but that is quite funny and ridiculous).  So, what exactly was his con? Well Bernie’s ‘elaborate’ scheme was none other than a Ponzi scheme, a well-known simple con which tricked his victims/investors out of $65billion. The Ponzi scheme consists of obtaining money from investors by promising them high returns with little/ or no risk

Have you ever even heard of Earthport, because I certainly have not? The firm specialises in cross border payments and its main advantage is the fact that the system allows banks and/or financial firms to move money across borders (this is all without having to liaise with local regulators and banks first). So, I can definitely see why large corporations such as Mastercard and Visa are now suddenly interested in bidding for Earthport. Visa started the bidding war off with an initial offer of £198 million which was an all-cash offer. It’s not surprising to hear that Mastercard then gate-crashed the deal with an offer of £233 million.  So why are these firms bidding for Earthport? I think it’s due to the synergies the firms recognise between themselves and Earthport, with all the companies being payment based. There  has been a recent influx in mergers and acquisitions in the payment industry which is mainly due to disruption in technology as customers turn to cashless payments