The number of shareholders of a credit union is limited and formalized by a list. Limit of the number is defined by the assembly and such assembly establishes the charter. The uniqueness of credit unions is that they put together the principles and benefits of financial cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and mutual aid funds, born once by trade unions. National Credit Union Insurance Fund was created by Congress in 1970 to insure deposits of credit union members in the amount of 100 thousand dollars. Until the mid-XX century, credit unions in the United States had little assets that did not exceed, as a rule, 100 thousand dollars 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. Credit union as a consumer cooperative operates on the principles of equality of all its members.