Alliance Data Systems has announced plans for a secondary offering. The S-3 filed by ADS with the SEC is available online.

PMN reports on a new mobile payments trial in Japan involving NTT DoCoMo, Visa, Nippon Shinpan, OMC Card and AEON Credit.

The service uses an i-Appli Java application and the IR port of DoCoMo's 504i series handsets. Users enter their credit card details into the i-Appli application and can then use the handset to transmit payment via IR to specially-equipped retail terminals. The trial will involve about 3000 users, selected by Nippon Shinpan from its existing Visa customers, and 500 retailers in the Tokyo area. Visa is supplying technical expertise and implementation of its 'Visa Proximity Payments Messaging Specification'.

GE held an investor day last week focused on commercial and consumer finance. Of particular interest is the presentation on GE's global consumer finance business. In the US, GE has about 100 million consumer relationships through its private label card business. GE claims that merchants benefit greatly from private label cards -- visiting 50% more frequently and spending 30% more per visit. In addition, merchants save money when private label cards are used as they are less expensive than traditional bankcards. GE also discussed its plans for dual use cards -- combining private label and bankcard together in a single piece of plastic (similar to cards issued today by Sears and Target). GE is planning to launch dual use cards later this year.