In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. 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. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. 1970 - a new service called The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States.