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. Another invention of Western Union - time synchronization. You do not need to open a bank account, so you can send or receive money in any of the 170 000 service points of Western Union around the world. The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States.