In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Western Union has several divisions, with products such as person-to-person money transfer, money orders, business payments and commercial services. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. Another invention of Western Union - time synchronization. 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 2000 was launched the Web site westernunion.com, with which users from certain countries can independently transfer funds online. In the 1910-1920 years. Western Union is actively engaged in researching, innovating in the field of data transmission. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network. Western Union for more than 130 years provides money transfer services to its customers.