ALBANY, N.Y.–William J. Mellin, president/CEO of the New York Credit Union Association, has been appointed to serve on the Taxi Medallion Sale Prices Task Force as a lending institution representative. Mellin was appointed by New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
As CUToday.info has reported, numerous investigations are ongoing regarding the sale of taxi medallions and the loans to finance them, including by a half-dozen credit unions, all of which have been conserved at a cost to the credit union deposit insurance fund of nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.
The FBI last week arrested the former CEO of one credit union, alleging he was bribed to approve tens of millions of dollars’ worth of loans.
“I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Speaker Corey Johnson and the New York City Council for appointing me to serve on the task force,” said Mellin in a statement. “I look forward to working closely with my peers on the task force and relaying our findings to the City Council and Mayor.”
Taxi Medallion CUs ‘Among the Best Performing’
As CUToday.info reported here, the New York Credit Union Association was a strong proponent of taxi medallion loans prior to the meltdown in values and it pushed back on proposals by NCUA to put in place any limits on such loans.
In a 2014 comment letter, the New York Credit Union Association argued that NCUA’s risk-based capital proposal needed to be “extensively revised,” noting, “By placing too much emphasis on concentration risk and giving itself the power to impose customized capital requirements on specific credit unions, the NCUA is seeking to take too much power away from credit unions.
“Some of the best performing loans that credit unions make—taxi medallion loans—would be given among the highest risk weights possible simply because there are some credit unions that specialize in making these types of loans, with no consideration of the fact that these are among the best-performing credit union loans in the country,” the NYCUA added.