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. 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. Until the 70's there was a proliferation of the U.S. credit unions due to the increase of their number and the number of shareholders, although it must be acknowledged that there was also and a qualitative growth. Income derived from the provision of services to its members, does not become the profit of credit union and is distributed among its members in proportion to their savings. International cooperation has been particularly felt since the days when Alphonse Desjardins began the activity on development of credit union movement in North America. 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. Credit unions, like today's credit unions, emerged in the 19th century in Germany as a result of crop failure and famine. Standards by which credit unions build their work do not coincide with the standards and regulations of consumer cooperation of the usual type. Worldwide credit union movement is represented by regional confederations and national organizations within the World Council of Credit Unions.