Following the lead of MasterCard, Visa announced today that they are restructuring their company on a global scale including an IPO for the American branch of Visa.

Visa announced today that it intends to restructure its organization in order to create a new public global corporation called Visa Inc. As a part of this restructuring, Visa Europe will remain a membership association, owned and governed by its European member banks, and become a licensee of Visa Inc. Visa expects the proposed restructuring will best position the company to meet the evolving needs of its customers and will accelerate its growth by improving organizational efficiency, addressing certain legal claims that exist in some markets, and increasing access to capital.

MasterCard's IPO was extremely successful, more than anyone thought, and Visa has the ability to make a lot of money with a public offering. This money will definitely be partly used as padding for a plethora of major upcoming lawsuits, that could cost Visa hundreds of millions.

Subsequently, MasterCard reported a drop in their stock almost immediately after Visa announced its new plan. MasterCard stock has been assumed to be high above its actual value, and this could trigger the beginning of a slump for MasterCard.

usa.visa.com - Visa Announces Global Restructuring