In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. In 1995, First Financial Management was acquired by First Data Corp. (the deal amounted to $ 7 billion), and Western Union Financial Services became a subsidiary of First Data. The Western Union Company is a leader in global payment services 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.