Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. Payment systems are one of basic elements of infrastructure of e-commerce. You do not need to open a bank account, so you can send or receive money in any of the 170 000 service points of Western Union around the world. 1970 - a new service called Western Union for more than 130 years provides money transfer services to its customers.