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. 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. The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. In the 1910-1920 years. Western Union is actively engaged in researching, innovating in the field of data transmission. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide.