NEW YORK—Credit unions in this city that make taxi medallion loans have received more bad news, as an auction at a Queens hotel indicated prices for medallions continue to fall as ride-sharing services take their toll on once-lofty medallion values.
According to a report in Crain’s New York Business, 46 medallions sold for $186,000 apiece. A 6% premium that's owed to the auction house pushed the price to around $198,000 per medallion, or $9.1 million in total.
Taxi medallion prices topped $1 million in 2013 and reached $965,000 at an auction held by the city in early 2014, Crain’s noted.
Crain’s reported that while the latest auction was closed to the press, one observer described the bidding as proceeding in small increments between two parties. The $186,000-per medallion bid was for all 46 of the placards, which prevented the auction house from accepting one-off bids that would have priced a single medallion north of $200,000, Crain’s noted, adding that the winning bidder is expected to lease the medallions to a fleet operator.
Falling medallion prices have impacted several Big Apple credit unions. NCUA in June placed medallion lender LOMTO FCU, Woodside, N.Y., into conservatorship.
LOMTO is the third taxi-medallion CU the agency has taken action against as the value of medallions in New York City, which are required in order to legally drive a cab, have plummeted. That has led many members to default on their medallion loans.
Such defaults led to the conservatorship of the $1.8-billion Melrose Credit Union earlier this year and, prior to that in September of 2015, the conservatorship of another taxi medallion lender, Montauk CU. It was later merged into Bethpage FCU.