Today in the UK there are about 700 credit unions with assets exceeding 200 million pounds. First central bank of credit unions appeared in 1876. Credit unions began to appear rapidly in many European countries. At the organization of the credit union it is important that people know each other and know the extent to which each of them is trustworthy. The main advantage of credit unions consists in transparency, controllability, governance for shareholders. Consumer loan and reliable savings - these are the main goals, which mean "natural persons" having decided to unite in credit consumer cooperative. 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. 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. 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.