Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. The first credit union in the United States was founded in 1909. by the group of Franco-American Catholics in Manchester, New Hampshire, and was called "Cooperative Credit Association of St. Mary. " In recent decades, many credit unions began to resort to such form of service as Credit unions encourage savings of citizens, setting compensation payments (interest) on savings and provide from these savings loans to their members. Credit unions are competitors of savings institutions, adding interest on deposits of members. This applies to the shares, as well as to additional funds transferred to the account in the credit union.