Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. Typically, donor contributions to the credit unions are targeted and used in the same statutory requirements and restrictions as the Mutual Financial Aid fund as a whole. In recent decades, many credit unions began to resort to such form of service as Principles of cooperative democracy and interaction were adequate to the purposes for which people joined credit unions. 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. 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 supreme body of the World Council of Credit Unions is the Assembly, which elects the president and the board of directors of WOCCU. In the UK, credit unions are a source of financing of people groups. This tool is not widely used. Credit union as a consumer cooperative operates on the principles of equality of all its members.