1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. In order to increase competitiveness and market expansion of its services, Western Union launched a program of loyalty Western Union Gold Card for customers, who has repeatedly made money transfers via Western Union. 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). Before transition to remittances Western Union company rendered services on sphere of cable communication. On the market was placed about 765 million of ordinary shares of the company. On the first day trading on the exchange the company's shares rose by 3.3% and the cost was $ 19.96.