Specialization of credit unions to provide financial services to its shareholders requires a particularly strict regulation of membership and acceptable activities. When organizing the credit union it is important that people know each other and know the extent to which each of them is trustworthy. Is necessary that all shareholders of the credit union were members of a single community, would know each other well enough to enjoy mutual trust. Standards by which credit unions build their work do not coincide with the standards and regulations of consumer cooperation of the usual type. 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.