Taking a decision to join a credit union, citizens create an organization through which they participate in the shared savings by mutual crediting and joint (collective) use of personal savings. The supreme body of the World Council of Credit Unions is the Assembly, which elects the president and the board of directors of WOCCU. The number of shareholders of a credit union is limited and formalized by a list. Limit of the number is defined by the assembly and such assembly establishes the charter. The uniqueness of credit unions is that they put together the principles and benefits of financial cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and mutual aid funds, born once by trade unions. 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. Among the U.S. credit unions, there are three groups that differ in terms of assets, shareholders, and business services. The first credit union in the United States was founded in 1909. by the group of Franco-American Catholics in Manchester, New Hampshire, and was called "Cooperative Credit Association of St. Mary. " In the credit union compensation for use of the loan (interest) is a source of compensation for savings. 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 number of shareholders of a credit union is limited and formalized by a list. Limit of the number is defined by the assembly and such assembly establishes the charter. The uniqueness of credit unions is that they put together the principles and benefits of financial cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and mutual aid funds, born once by trade unions. The supreme body of the World Council of Credit Unions is the Assembly, which elects the president and the board of directors of WOCCU.