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. To get a loan in the credit union a shareholder must be not only a formally adopted there, but necessary pay in cash contributions, the amount and order of payment of which approved by the General Assembly and fixed by the charter. First central bank of credit unions appeared in 1876. Credit unions began to appear rapidly in many European countries. Cooperation between credit unions, how they would not have been named, took place always, from the moment when the movement moved outside one credit union. The main advantage of credit unions consists in transparency, controllability, governance for shareholders. 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. Historically, credit unions have grown from the experience of credit cooperatives, but they took the experience of organizations of mutual aid of citizens by moving methods of social self-protection from labor and toward consumption. 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.