Visa had the largest U.S. initial public offering when it went public in 2008.
Visa’s IPO took place in March 2008 and raised about $17.9 billion, making it the largest U.S. IPO at that time. The company issued shares while transforming from an association of member financial institutions into a publicly traded corporation.
Visa does not generally issue cards or lend money to cardholders. Instead, it operates a global electronic-payments network that helps authorize, clear, and settle transactions between consumers, merchants, banks, and other institutions.
Visa became one of the world’s most valuable companies because its business benefits from the enormous volume of payments traveling across its network. Its market capitalization is separate from the total value of payments processed, which is a much larger transaction measure.