Credit unions encourage savings of citizens, setting compensation payments (interest) on savings and provide from these savings loans to their members. 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. Credit unions appeared in England in the 19th century. In 1844 a group of workers from Rochdale established the first cooperative. Credit Union - a non-profit financial institution specialized in mutual financial assistance by providing savings and credit services to their members. 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.