The uniqueness of credit unions is that they put together the principles and benefits of financial cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and mutual aid funds, born once by trade unions. Cooperation between credit unions, how they would not have been named, took place always, from the moment when the movement moved outside one credit union. Credit unions appeared in England in the 19th century. In 1844 a group of workers from Rochdale established the first cooperative. The supreme body of the World Council of Credit Unions is the Assembly, which elects the president and the board of directors of WOCCU.