In the U.S., credit unions have a clear organizational structure. All credit unions belong to one or the other parent credit union (there are 35 of them in the U.S.). 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). 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 right to use the services of the credit union have only its members. 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. Unlike banks credit unions limit their activities to a closed circle of people. A credit union on its own initiative order is created by citizens (individuals) to solve their financial problems that they could not solve in other financial institutions. Corporate alliances are intermediaries between credit unions and financial markets.