I have a strong personal interest in Financial Inclusion through the enablement of innovative technologies. Past roles include the Head of Technology at WING Cambodia and a Mobile Financial Services Consultant with HSL Consulting. Drawing from 10 years experience in Financial Services and vast networks across industry, I work with organisations on strategies and plans to establish build and optimize market offerings. I enjoy close relationships with many of the large International Development organizations. 
But what surprises me most is that the announcement falls short of my expectations. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Google could have leveraged the Open Handest Alliance and Open Standards of its Android platform to raise the industry to a level that would be hard to follow. We could have seen the possibility of open source developers building ePOS Apps for businesses, driving digital transactions into new market segments where traditional POS devices are too costly.
Google could have created an offering that goes beyond the limitations of NFC, but have been happy with MasterCard PayPass' NFC network. Is this just a speed to market play from the Google & MasterCard? Or is this actually their strategy?
Let's hope that this is just a speed to market play, otherwise Google & MasterCard have under-estimated the potential of their current assets.
Great view on the big noise ScottieBales. Agree that this may only be just a strategy.
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