Principles of cooperative democracy and interaction were adequate to the purposes for which people joined credit unions. At the organization of the credit union it is important that people know each other and know the extent to which each of them is trustworthy. 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. 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. Worldwide credit union movement is represented by regional confederations and national organizations within the World Council of Credit Unions.