1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. In 1920, Western Union has implemented the world's first transmission of images over the ocean. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. 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 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Before transition to remittances Western Union company rendered services on sphere of cable communication. 1970 - a new service called The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States.