Today in the UK there are about 700 credit unions with assets exceeding 200 million pounds. Like the credit cooperatives, credit unions form associations of a higher level, which are called corporate credit unions. Credit union promotes the effective conservation of personal funds of its members, giving them the loans from the funds of the credit union, as well as the sharing of savings in education, housing, health care and other programs of social support and social development of its members. Is necessary that all shareholders of the credit union were members of a single community, would know each other well enough to enjoy mutual trust. Initially, the target groups of credit unions were farmers (Raiffeisen), and now they include both individuals (credit unions), and organizations. Consumer loan and reliable savings - these are the main goals, which mean "natural persons" having decided to unite in credit consumer cooperative. 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.