The economic basis of credit unions - finances of a household. The main objective of the credit union - to ensure financial stability of a household, to ensure the priority of their shareholders' financial interests. Credit unions also differ from the traditional consumer cooperatives. 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. The relationship of shareholders with credit union are not client-based, they are co-operative, based on different principles and standards, in particular, on the principles of the law of obligations. As of the January 1, 2012 the national associations and confederations unite more than 196 million members participating in the 51,013 credit unions in 100 countries. 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.