In recent decades, many credit unions began to resort to such form of service as Credit unions perform the function of social protection in a vital for people sphere of financial services. They care about improving the financial literacy of the population, are working on the formation of their members and their employees. 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. 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. 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. Credit unions base their activities on savings of shareholders, their shares and savings contributions, which make up the fund of mutual financial assistance - a source of cash loans to shareholders. 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.