Historically, credit unions were preceded by widespread development of credit cooperation in many countries of Europe and America. The right to use the services of the credit union have only its members. 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. 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.