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Visa may raise up to $18.8 billion (£9.6 billion) in the largest initial public offering (IPO) in US history, as spending on plastic rises around the world.

Credit card network operator Visa is offering 406 million Class A shares with an initial public offering price to be between $37 (£18.76) and $42 (£21.29) per share.

Visa collects a charge every time one of their cards are used, and reported operating revenues of $5.2 billion (£2.64 billion) for last year.

The San Francisco-based company said it may sell another 40.6 million shares if there is enough demand, boosting the IPO's potential size to $18.8 billion.

The size of the IPO could beat the previous $10.6 billion record set in April 2000 by AT&T Wireless Group and dwarf rival MasterCard, which raised $2.6 billion (£1.32 billion) in its IPO last year.

Currently, Visa is owned by the member banks which issue its cards, and most of the proceeds of the sale will go to them – although some of the money will be spent on legal disputes arising from an anti-trust lawsuit in the US.

Despite the recent turbulence in the financial markets and a global credit crunch, Visa believes it is set for further growth.

The company cited a recent Nilson report, forecasting global card purchase transactions to increase at an annual rate of 11 per cent from 2006 to 2012, with particularly strong growth in Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Middle East/Africa.