Membership in the credit union is voluntary and is open to all citizens bound by with joint work or residence, who wished to create a credit union to use its services and are willing to take on relevant commitments and responsibilities. Credit unions attract people in the first place by the opportunity to get cash loan (credit) - quickly and relatively inexpensively. Like the credit cooperatives, credit unions form associations of a higher level, which are called corporate credit unions. Credit unions appeared in England in the 19th century. In 1844 a group of workers from Rochdale established the first cooperative. U.S. credit unions have another significant difference from the credit cooperatives of farmers: the first have major proportion of short-term loans, the second - long and mostly in real estate. To increase the number of credit unions in 1979 was adopted the corresponding law that serves as the legal basis of their activity.