Like any financial institution, credit unions have the financial resources. Some credit unions are closed, serving only their members. However, the more and more popularitywin cooperatives of open type. Income received by the credit union shall be distributed among the shareholders or spent for the depreciation of services, that is, are the most effective means of meeting the needs of shareholders. The main advantage of credit unions consists in transparency, controllability, governance for shareholders. 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. Standards by which credit unions build their work do not coincide with the standards and regulations of consumer cooperation of the usual type. Credit unions are financial institutions, financial cooperatives of citizens, and in this capacity they are above all associations of people, not unification of capitals, which is typical, for example, for public companies.