Fund of Mutual Financial Aid of the credit union can be extended by sponsorship contributions from businesses, organizations, including on a returnable basis. 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. " 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. Today, the World Council of Credit Unions is represented as members four regional confederations and twelve national associations.