America was on the verge of civil war and needed a reliable connection between the North and South. On the telegraph market of the USA at this time were operated with six large companies: American Telegraph Company, New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph, Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company, and the brainchild of Sibley & Co. - The Western Union Telegraph. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. In 1866, Sibley ordered the engineers to develop a Western Union telegraph system of stock quotes in real time. 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). 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. In 2007 the company made 167.7 million transactions on money transfers between individuals and 404.6 million transactions between physical and legal persons. In October 1871 the company has implemented the world's first telegraph money order. After a century money transfers have become a major source of income for Western Union. The Western Union Company uses the most up to date technologies and its unique worldwide computer network that allows to carry out quick money transfers payments in more than 190 countries around the world. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide.