In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. Most service points of Western Union work in the time convenient for customers throughout the week and throughout the year. 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). In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.