In 1866, Sibley ordered the engineers to develop a Western Union telegraph system of stock quotes in real time. 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. Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.