In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. 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 1991, Western Union has sold some low-profit division of the company AT & T, GM Hughes Electronics, and to some others. In the same year the company changed its name to New Valley Corp. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.