The presence of Western Union Gold Card at the client greatly simplifies the process of further processing of money transfers of and reduces the operation time for the sending of money, as the "Gold Card" is a carrier of the personal information about the client. 1998 - the number of points of money transfers worldwide reached 50,000. The network of money transfers of Western Union is the world's largest. 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. In October 2006 the company made an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming independent from First Data company. Before transition to remittances Western Union company rendered services on sphere of cable communication.