The head of Google Wallet, Osama Bedier, has quit after two years in the job during which the mobile payments operation has failed to take off.
In a statement confirming a Venture Beat report, the search giant says Bedier has "decided to leave Google this year to pursue other opportunities," adding that "he's achieved a lot during his time here, and we wish him all the best in his next endeavour".
Google poached Bedier in early 2011 from PayPal, where he was m-platform leader, in a move widely interpreted as a sign of how seriously it was taking its push into the emerging mobile payments market. The recruitment worried PayPal so much that it quickly filed a lawsuit against Google and Bedier.
However, under Bedier the NFC Google Wallet has failed to gain traction in a competitive and fractured US market. Last year the firm tried to breathe new life into the stuttering platform by launching a cloud-based version of the app that can be linked to Visa, American Express and Discover cards.
Yet take-up is still hampered because only one major US telco, Sprint, supports Wallet while AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are instead running their own rival system through the Isis joint venture.
Nevertheless, in its Bedier statement, Google insists that it is not backing away from Wallet yet: "Payments are a big part of what people do every day, and we're committed to making them easier for everyone."