In recent decades, many credit unions began to resort to such form of service as Like the credit cooperatives, credit unions form associations of a higher level, which are called corporate credit unions. The number of shareholders of a credit union is limited and formalized by a list. Limit of the number is defined by the assembly and such assembly establishes the charter. 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). In the credit union compensation for use of the loan (interest) is a source of compensation for 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. The supreme body of the World Council of Credit Unions is the Assembly, which elects the president and the board of directors of WOCCU.