Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. To date, credit unions - virtually the only form of financial institution where people can quickly and without any problems get a relatively inexpensive cash loan. Most modern credit unions represent specialized consumer cooperatives of citizens associated by the principle of social community: place of work, place of residence, profession, or any other shared interest. Credit union promotes the effective conservation of personal funds of its members, giving them the loans from the funds of the credit union, as well as the sharing of savings in education, housing, health care and other programs of social support and social development of its members. International cooperation has been particularly felt since the days when Alphonse Desjardins began the activity on development of credit union movement in North America. Until the mid-XX century, credit unions in the United States had little assets that did not exceed, as a rule, 100 thousand dollars In the UK, credit unions are a source of financing of people groups. This tool is not widely used. Credit unions are financial institutions, financial cooperatives of citizens, and in this capacity they are above all associations of people, not unification of capitals, which is typical, for example, for public companies.