Corporate credit unions are united on a cooperative basis in the Central Credit Union (US Central Credit Union). Today in the UK there are about 700 credit unions with assets exceeding 200 million pounds. Credit unions attract people in the first place by the opportunity to get cash loan (credit) - quickly and relatively inexpensively. Members of credit unions place in credit unions usually free fund balances, ie those that remain after expenses devoted to education of children, the acquisition of new properties, additional pension benefits, etc. 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. In the credit union compensation for use of the loan (interest) is a source of compensation for savings. U.S. credit unions have another significant difference from the credit cooperatives of farmers: the first have major proportion of short-term loans, the second - long and mostly in real estate.