Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. Some credit unions are closed, serving only their members. However, the more and more popularitywin cooperatives of open type. Is necessary that all shareholders of the credit union were members of a single community, would know each other well enough to enjoy mutual trust. 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. National Credit Union Insurance Fund was created by Congress in 1970 to insure deposits of credit union members in the amount of 100 thousand dollars. Credit unions are competitors of savings institutions, adding interest on deposits of members. This applies to the shares, as well as to additional funds transferred to the account in the credit union. The specifics of credit unions and, in some sense, their uniqueness lies in the fact that they work not for profit and do not appropriate profit. Credit union as a consumer cooperative operates on the principles of equality of all its members.