Among the U.S. credit unions, there are three groups that differ in terms of assets, shareholders, and business services. 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. In some cases, the initiators of credit unions can be trade unions, associations such as social support centers and others. Credit unions historically formed as a special form of social support, initially taken upon themselves the social mission of protecting the interests of citizens in the field of financial services.