The number of shareholders of a credit union is limited and formalized by a list. Limit of the number is defined by the assembly and such assembly establishes the charter. 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. Income derived from the provision of services to its members, does not become the profit of credit union and is distributed among its members in proportion to their savings. 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. Standards by which credit unions build their work do not coincide with the standards and regulations of consumer cooperation of the usual type. Corporate alliances are intermediaries between credit unions and financial markets.