The uniqueness of credit unions is that they put together the principles and benefits of financial cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and mutual aid funds, born once by trade unions. 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. Credit unions of the open type are still controlled by their members, but at the same time provide services to people who are not its members (external customers). International cooperation has been particularly felt since the days when Alphonse Desjardins began the activity on development of credit union movement in North America. As of the January 1, 2012 the national associations and confederations unite more than 196 million members participating in the 51,013 credit unions in 100 countries. Credit Union - a non-profit financial institution specialized in mutual financial assistance by providing savings and credit services to their members. The specifics of credit unions and, in some sense, their uniqueness lies in the fact that they work not for profit and do not appropriate profit.