Until the mid-XX century, credit unions in the United States had little assets that did not exceed, as a rule, 100 thousand dollars 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. A potential new member of a credit union must submit a recommendation of shareholders in which the referee becomes a warrant of a future member of the credit union. Unlike banks credit unions limit their activities to a closed circle of people. 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. International cooperation has been particularly felt since the days when Alphonse Desjardins began the activity on development of credit union movement in North America. Typically new members of the credit union become citizens having suretyship or recommendations from their friends - members of the credit union. 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). Representative organization, leading the coordination work in the field of development of both global and national credit union movement is the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) established in 1971 (headquartered in Madison, USA).