To reduce the risk of default on loans members of the credit union shall the joint guarantee. Over 30% of the assets of credit unions are investments in government securities, certificates of deposit of banks and savings loan associations, as well as in the parent credit unions, and other risk-free investments. As of the January 1, 2012 the national associations and confederations unite more than 196 million members participating in the 51,013 credit unions in 100 countries. Until the mid-XX century, credit unions in the United States had little assets that did not exceed, as a rule, 100 thousand dollars The relationship between credit unions and shareholders arise from the membership and are not customer relationship. In some cases, the initiators of credit unions can be trade unions, associations such as social support centers and others. A credit union on its own initiative order is created by citizens (individuals) to solve their financial problems that they could not solve in other financial institutions. Corporate alliances are intermediaries between credit unions and financial markets.