NEW YORK—Alan Kaufman, CEO at Melrose CU—one of several credit unions in this city suffering big loan losses from the sharp slide in taxi medallion values, is no longer with the institution.
A spokesperson for Melrose confirmed to CUToday.info that Kauffman has departed the $1.9-billion CU, but declined to say if Kaufman was fired or left on his own.
The outlook for taxi medallion CUs in this city has been bleak in the last year. Due to the impact of ride-sharing services such as Uber, taxi medallions continue to decline in value and taxicab operators continue to experience a drop in revenues, impacting the performance of medallion loans as well as their collateral value.
Melrose CU, which reported a loss of $176.6 million last year, showed a loss of $5.6 million through Q1. The credit union’s net worth stood at 10.37% through Q1, down slightly from December but well off 18.44% at the end of 2014.
Melrose reported that delinquent loans to total loans more than doubled between December 2015 (7.8%) and March 2016 (18.62%). As of March 2016, Melrose had almost $371 million in loans 60 days or more past due, up from $155 million at the end of 2015.