Like any financial institution, credit unions have the financial resources. First Credit Union was savings unprofitable institution, or rather credit cooperative, providing services to its members. Over 30% of the assets of credit unions are investments in government securities, certificates of deposit of banks and savings loan associations, as well as in the parent credit unions, and other risk-free investments. As of the January 1, 2012 the national associations and confederations unite more than 196 million members participating in the 51,013 credit unions in 100 countries. In the UK, credit unions are a source of financing of people groups. This tool is not widely used. 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.