Absolutely, the Apple issue appears to have delayed Tier 1 in Europe for Visa/MC. I agree that now it is resolved that they can redirect tech resources back to getting Tier 1 certification for Visa/MC. Yes, I would like to think that December has been thrown out there as a conservative timeline. JK has been giving 6-8 week/ 8-10 week Tier 1 estimates for a while now and for different reasons they have not been able to meet this target.
Possibly he's thrown December out there now to be on the safe side and not disappoint again? If they pull it together earlier then it's a bonus. He did sound pretty confident about things not being too far off in that briefing (Treasury functions complete re: MC and entering last stage of cert with them). Its been tools down on Tier 1 for the last month and hopefully the 6-8 week clock has restarted.
I'm not worried by the delay as they have proven they can acheived Tier 1 certification with a card scheme (JCB).
At the end of the day they are still a pretty small team and unexpected external issues, that they can't control, but none the less affect them can suddenly require resources to be diverted.
Another major priority is both securing the best short term alternate supply agreement they can in AU and also pick up as much of that NAB business as they can. I think it is best to throw kitchen sink at signing up as much NAB business as possible (even at low margin) and then sort out the bottom line down the track.
Once someone signs up with you there is an immediate level of stickiness. It would require a lot of effort on a merchant's part to then change acquirer again (like how people can't be bothered changing home loans). NAB have forced $30bn of market into changing acquirers even though they may have otherwise been happy. ISX need to pick up as much as they can. Once they are contracted they will unlikely want to go through that process again anytime soon.
ISX just need to be able to get a Tier 1 acquirer to agree to provide short term supply in AU until they have their own cert in place (and agree to/be capable of large volumes if ISX do contract a decent amount of the market NAB is exiting).
All of this while making an aquisition in Europe to speed up their banking capability and at the same time applying to become an Authorised Deposit Taking Institution in AU with APRA.
When you look at eveything going on it makes you realise how external factors can cause some delays!
What I like is that JK and the team are not willing to settle for second best in any area. They want to cut out all the middlemen so to speak. They want their own Tier 1 arrangements with card/payment schemes, they want their own central banking, they have their own patented KYC etc.
This will all lead to many different positives - strong margins, control/independence from other financial institutions, competitive advantage/economic moat.
These barriers are all set up to be difficult to get over (those on the other side want it that way) but once they do watch out.
PS. Quietly confident we will see some more NAB contract wins over the next week or two.
