Today in the UK there are about 700 credit unions with assets exceeding 200 million pounds. Activity of the credit union consists of organizing mutual financial assistance by meeting the needs of its members in the services of saving and obtaining loans. Credit unions attract people in the first place by the opportunity to get cash loan (credit) - quickly and relatively inexpensively. Like the credit cooperatives, credit unions form associations of a higher level, which are called corporate credit unions. Among the U.S. credit unions, there are three groups that differ in terms of assets, shareholders, and business services. 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. 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. Today, the World Council of Credit Unions is represented as members four regional confederations and twelve national associations.