Credit unions attract people in the first place by the opportunity to get cash loan (credit) - quickly and relatively inexpensively. Principles of cooperative democracy and interaction were adequate to the purposes for which people joined credit unions. First central bank of credit unions appeared in 1876. Credit unions began to appear rapidly in many European countries. Contributions from of shareholders in credit unions in no way can be considered as borrowed funds, they come from the shareholders and for the shareholders and can not be used to provide services to third parties. In the case of default the shareholder - individual will respond with its property and, in addition, is jointly and severally liable with the credit union's commitments. Credit unions historically formed as a special form of social support, initially taken upon themselves the social mission of protecting the interests of citizens in the field of financial services. Unlike banks, in order to use the services of a credit union, you have to become its member, having written an application and having paid thus shares and membership fee. 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. 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. Corporate alliances are intermediaries between credit unions and financial markets.