National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) - an independent federal agency, based in Washington (State of Columbia), established by the U.S. Congress to oversee the federal credit union system. In recent decades, many credit unions began to resort to such form of service as 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). The relationship of shareholders with credit union are not client-based, they are co-operative, based on different principles and standards, in particular, on the principles of the law of obligations. The relationship between credit unions and shareholders arise from the membership and are not customer relationship. Credit unions, like today's credit unions, emerged in the 19th century in Germany as a result of crop failure and famine. Today, the World Council of Credit Unions is represented as members four regional confederations and twelve national associations.