Corporate credit unions are united on a cooperative basis in the Central Credit Union (US Central Credit Union). Some credit unions are closed, serving only their members. However, the more and more popularitywin cooperatives of open type. Until the mid-XX century, credit unions in the United States had little assets that did not exceed, as a rule, 100 thousand dollars Credit unions, like today's credit unions, emerged in the 19th century in Germany as a result of crop failure and famine. Credit unions are financial institutions, financial cooperatives of citizens, and in this capacity they are above all associations of people, not unification of capitals, which is typical, for example, for public companies. Credit cooperatives and credit unions exist in many different forms. The main differences relate to the nature of the membership and the opening of a credit institution.