Western Union has taken of 451st position in the rating Fortune 500 in 2009, having moved from 473rd line in 2008. In order to increase competitiveness and market expansion of its services, Western Union launched a program of loyalty Western Union Gold Card for customers, who has repeatedly made money transfers via Western Union. In 1864, fearing the laying of long underwater lines, Western Union offered to carry out laying of telegraph lines to Europe through the Russian Alaska under the narrow Bering Strait and then to Siberia with branching in the major cities of Europe. One of the common kinds of money transfer is a transfer via the international system of Western Union. In 2000 was launched the Web site westernunion.com, with which users from certain countries can independently transfer funds online. On the market was placed about 765 million of ordinary shares of the company. On the first day trading on the exchange the company's shares rose by 3.3% and the cost was $ 19.96. The first offices of company were located in the Reynolds Arcade building in Rochester, New York. The sign above the main entrance to the building - In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.