America was on the verge of civil war and needed a reliable connection between the North and South. On the telegraph market of the USA at this time were operated with six large companies: American Telegraph Company, New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph, Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company, and the brainchild of Sibley & Co. - The Western Union Telegraph. Each money transfer is protected with control number, that allows you to track and to ensure prompt payment of money specified by you person. Most service points of Western Union work in the time convenient for customers throughout the week and throughout the year. In October 2006 the company made an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming independent from First Data company. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. In 1991, Western Union has sold some low-profit division of the company AT & T, GM Hughes Electronics, and to some others. In the same year the company changed its name to New Valley Corp. 1970 - a new service called Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.