Google Mobile Payment Initiative – Partners with Citigroup and Mastercard

It is reported that, Google would be conducting near-field communications (NFC) payment tests with credit card giants Citigroup and Mastercard. With Google’s NFC based mobile-payment initiative, Android phones could thus provide a ‘rich payent experience’.

Mobile phones running Android 2.3 will be able to support NFC transactions. The market for mobile payments is expected to reach $618 billion by 2016, according to a report by consulting firm Edgar, Dunn & Co. and sponsored by MasterCard.