Digital financial services in Australia are so well developed and innovative that it gives little opportunity for Google Wallet, said Maile Carnegie, Google’s managing director in the country.

In an interview with Sydney Morning Herald, she pointed out that Australia had one of the highest take-up of contactless payments in the world, which reduces appetite for the search giant’s smartphone-based wallet service.

“I have no plans to launch [Google Wallet] in Australia,” she said. “My job is to really look and say, ‘what are the big problems or opportunities to solve in Australia?’ and there are much more exciting things on my plate.”

Google Wallet was launched first in the US in 2011. The opportunity there was much clearer, argued Carnegie, since writing cheques was still popular.

Even so, Google Wallet has struggled to take off.

In an attempt to boost growth, the search giant has been moving away from its original tap-to-pay strategy. New features include P2P money transactions, which enable users to send money from their smartphone to anyone in the US with an email address from their wallet account, bank and debit/credit card.