Visa held the record for the largest U.S. initial public offering before Alibaba's 2014 listing.
Visa's IPO took place on March 18, 2008, on the New York Stock Exchange. The company sold shares at $44 each and raised about $17.9 billion, making it the largest IPO in U.S. history at that time. Visa later exercised an over-allotment option, increasing the total proceeds beyond the initial amount.
Visa is a global payments network rather than a conventional bank. It generally facilitates electronic payments between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and governments, while banks issue many Visa-branded cards and manage customer accounts.
The financial crisis formed the backdrop to the offering, which made Visa's successful listing particularly notable. Alibaba's 2014 global offering surpassed Visa's record, but Visa remains a defining example of the scale possible for a mature payments network entering public markets.