Some credit unions are closed, serving only their members. However, the more and more popularitywin cooperatives of open type. Income received by the credit union shall be distributed among the shareholders or spent for the depreciation of services, that is, are the most effective means of meeting the needs of shareholders. Credit unions of the open type are still controlled by their members, but at the same time provide services to people who are not its members (external customers). International cooperation has been particularly felt since the days when Alphonse Desjardins began the activity on development of credit union movement in North America. 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. 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.