There is one US government agency that charters and oversees the activity of the thousands of credit unions in the United States. It is the National Credit Union Administration.This agency was founded in 1934. It was created through one of the many laws that passed as part of the New Deal. This agency was first part of the Farm Credit Administration. At that point, it was simply referred to as the Federal Credit Unions Bureau. This bureau grew in importance due to the increasing number of credit unions across the country. This increase was due to the fact that banks at the time were skittish about offering regular customers services at reasonable rates.A credit union is a kind of banking cooperative. The union itself is actually owned by the depositors. Credit unions can offer many regular banking services including savings accounts, checking accounts, credit cards, car loans, and mortgages. Using a credit union is especially attractive to many people because the rates offered for such services are usually lower than the rates offered at regular banks.Similarly to banks, a credit union needs to be chartered before it can open for business. Sometimes, a credit union can be charted by a state. However, most credit union charters are created by the National Credit Union Administration. By comparison, commercial banks are chartered through the FDIC and the Federal Reserve.The policies and practices that all US credit unions employ are adopted from guidelines that were created by the National Credit Union Administration. Rules and regulations a credit union employs are determined by individuals that sit on a board of directors. This board is elected by members of the credit union. Despite these elections, guidelines set by the federal government still need to be adhered to.One of the rules set by the National Credit Union Administration demands that all credit unions must offer things like savings and checking accounts. However, it is not demanded that credit unions offer mortgages. Due to this fact, not all credit unions offer mortgages to their customers. In general, the board of directors can choose what products to offer as long as they follow federal guidelines.