Visa, one of the world’s largest financial companies by market capitalization, completed its initial public offering in 2008.
Visa began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2008. The offering raised about 17.9 billion US dollars, making it the largest IPO in the United States at that time. Visa’s shares trade under the symbol V.
Visa does not generally issue cards or lend money directly to cardholders. Its core role is operating a global payments network that connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and payment processors. Banks issue many Visa-branded cards, while merchants accept transactions through the network.
Visa grew from Bank of America’s BankAmericard program, launched in California in 1958. That program later became Visa, while the separate Mastercard network developed from competing banking associations.