Principles of cooperative democracy and interaction were adequate to the purposes for which people joined credit unions. In the U.S. credit unions timely and full repayment of loans is a common phenomenon. Unpaid and delinquent loans are not more than 3% of their amount. Credit unions are competitors of savings institutions, adding interest on deposits of members. This applies to the shares, as well as to additional funds transferred to the account in the credit union. The main activities of credit unions, aimed at the organization of mutual aid and social support of citizens is not intended to profit. 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. Corporate alliances are intermediaries between credit unions and financial markets.