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. Western Union has several divisions, with products such as person-to-person money transfer, money orders, business payments and commercial services. Separation of the companies had two objectives: first, to give Western Union the opportunity to develop more intensively, and secondly, to help First Data to return to its original activity (in 1992 the company separated from the payment system of American Express as an independent financial services company). One of the common kinds of money transfer is a transfer via the international system of Western Union. Before transition to remittances Western Union company rendered services on sphere of cable communication. In 1849, Selden and Sibley, the founders of the future Western Union, created the New York State Printing Telegraph Company. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.