1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. By 1861 Western Union telegraph lines entangled the whole America. It's time to explore Europe. The Western Union Company is a leader in global payment services In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card.