Membership in the credit union is voluntary and is open to all citizens bound by with joint work or residence, who wished to create a credit union to use its services and are willing to take on relevant commitments and responsibilities. Today in the UK there are about 700 credit unions with assets exceeding 200 million pounds. Specialization of credit unions to provide financial services to its shareholders requires a particularly strict regulation of membership and acceptable activities. A potential new member of a credit union must submit a recommendation of shareholders in which the referee becomes a warrant of a future member of the credit union. In some cases, the initiators of credit unions can be trade unions, associations such as social support centers and others. Credit cooperatives and credit unions exist in many different forms. The main differences relate to the nature of the membership and the opening of a credit institution. 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.