National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) - an independent federal agency, based in Washington (State of Columbia), established by the U.S. Congress to oversee the federal credit union system. Principles of cooperative democracy and interaction were adequate to the purposes for which people joined credit unions. Credit unions also differ from the traditional consumer cooperatives. 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. The main advantage of credit unions consists in transparency, controllability, governance for shareholders. 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.