Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) - an independent federal agency, based in Washington (State of Columbia), established by the U.S. Congress to oversee the federal credit union system. The main advantage of credit unions consists in transparency, controllability, governance for shareholders. Credit unions are financial institutions, financial cooperatives of citizens, and in this capacity they are above all associations of people, not unification of capitals, which is typical, for example, for public companies. Unlike banks credit unions limit their activities to a closed circle of people.