Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. Typically, donor contributions to the credit unions are targeted and used in the same statutory requirements and restrictions as the Mutual Financial Aid fund as a whole. Today in the UK there are about 700 credit unions with assets exceeding 200 million pounds. The specifics of credit unions and, in some sense, their uniqueness lies in the fact that they work not for profit and do not appropriate profit.