Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) - an independent federal agency, based in Washington (State of Columbia), established by the U.S. Congress to oversee the federal credit union system. Specialization of credit unions to provide financial services to its shareholders requires a particularly strict regulation of membership and acceptable activities. Credit union promotes the effective conservation of personal funds of its members, giving them the loans from the funds of the credit union, as well as the sharing of savings in education, housing, health care and other programs of social support and social development of its members. Credit unions perform the function of social protection in a vital for people sphere of financial services. They care about improving the financial literacy of the population, are working on the formation of their members and their employees. Share contributions are transferred to the credit union on the basis of membership for the whole stay of a shareholder as member of the credit union and are the basis of membership. Credit unions of the open type are still controlled by their members, but at the same time provide services to people who are not its members (external customers). International cooperation has been particularly felt since the days when Alphonse Desjardins began the activity on development of credit union movement in North America. Credit cooperatives and credit unions exist in many different forms. The main differences relate to the nature of the membership and the opening of a credit institution.