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. 1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Sibley, the founder of Western Union, did not build a new telegraph lines, and persuaded the other players to join. American Telegraph Company, however, still had to buy it.