In the U.S., credit unions have a clear organizational structure. All credit unions belong to one or the other parent credit union (there are 35 of them in the U.S.). In 1908. the spread of credit unions has reached the United States. In 1935 President Roosevelt signed the state Charter on credit unions, which became a law. Representative organization, leading the coordination work in the field of development of both global and national credit union movement is the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) established in 1971 (headquartered in Madison, USA). Activity of the credit union consists of organizing mutual financial assistance by meeting the needs of its members in the services of saving and obtaining loans. Credit unions encourage savings of citizens, setting compensation payments (interest) on savings and provide from these savings loans to their members. Specialization of credit unions to provide financial services to its shareholders requires a particularly strict regulation of membership and acceptable activities. The main advantage of credit unions consists in transparency, controllability, governance for shareholders. Credit unions are competitors of savings institutions, adding interest on deposits of members. This applies to the shares, as well as to additional funds transferred to the account in the credit union. Credit unions, like today's credit unions, emerged in the 19th century in Germany as a result of crop failure and famine.