Western Union has taken of 451st position in the rating Fortune 500 in 2009, having moved from 473rd line in 2008. 1998 - the number of points of money transfers worldwide reached 50,000. The network of money transfers of Western Union is the world's largest. In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. The size of the commission fee for the transfer is charged according to the Western Union tariffs and depends on the amount of money sent. July 3, 1884 the company's shares were included in the calculation base for the newly created stock index Dow Jones Transportation Average. One of the common kinds of money transfer is a transfer via the international system of Western Union. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. In 1879 Western Union left the telephone business after losing a lawsuit against Alexander Graham Bell - the patent holder on the phone. In 1856, in 7 years after the foundation of New York State Printing Telegraph Company, the company changed its name to Western Union Telegraph Company. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.