By Miho Uranaka and Sam Nussey

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese e-commerce and finance heavyweight Rakuten is weighing an initial public offering in the United States of its credit card business, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Rakuten began considering a potential U.S. listing of one of Japan’s largest credit card businesses last month, the sources said. The considerations are in the early stages, with other potential options including a stake sale to a strategic buyer, one of the sources said.

One trigger for considering a U.S. IPO of Rakuten Card was rival SoftBank’s plans to list app pay operator PayPay in the U.S., the source said. The sources declined to be named as the information is not public.

The company’s considerations of a U.S. IPO had not been reported previou

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