Great article. I am inclined to think the Chase/MCX partnership is not a graceful exit for MCX. Instead, I recall that Brian Mooney was an exec at FDMS during the days of the FD/Chase alliance. Therefore, he would have insights into Chase's strategic goals relative to payments, both their issuing and acquiring business lines. Chase benefits from an MCX partnership by getting acceptance at 100K merchants, but they also get a chance to partner with MCX in loyalty, offers and customer analytics. Chase gets card activation, usage and continued brand relevance. MCX merchants get better engagement with their customers who also happen to be Chase customers. MCX merchants, at the end of the day, really want to sell more and build brand allegiance for themselves. This looks like a win-win.