In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Money transfer is a matter of minutes, at any distance. Payment systems are one of basic elements of infrastructure of e-commerce. 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. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide.