Like any financial institution, credit unions have the financial resources. Typically new members of the credit union become citizens having suretyship or recommendations from their friends - members of the credit union. The main advantage of credit unions consists in transparency, controllability, governance for shareholders. Membership in the credit union forms responsible citizens and conscientious attitude to their obligations as a norm of behavior, identify the value of a decent man's reputation in the business turnover. Credit unions appeared in England in the 19th century. In 1844 a group of workers from Rochdale established the first 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. In some cases, the initiators of credit unions can be trade unions, associations such as social support centers and others. 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.