Municipal Credit Union (MCU) is a state chartered
credit union
A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit cooperative financial institution. They may offer financial services equivalent to those of commercial banks, such as share accounts (savings accounts), share draft accounts (che ...
headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, regulated under the authority of the
National Credit Union Administration
The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is an American government-backed insurer of Credit unions in the United States, credit unions in the United States, one of two agencies that provide deposit insurance to depositors in U.S. deposi ...
(NCUA). MCU is metro New York's largest credit union. As of 2018, MCU had $2.68 billion in assets.
It has approximately 425,000 members and 18 branches.
History
Municipal Credit Union was founded in 1916 for municipal workers in New York City.
John Purroy Mitchel
John Purroy Mitchel (July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918) was the 95th mayor of New York, in office from 1914 to 1917. At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor of the city, and was sometimes referred to as the "Boy Mayor of New York". Mitchel won t ...
, New York City's Mayor at the time, wanted city employees to have alternatives to
loan shark
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at Usury, extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of debt collection, collection, and generally operates criminal, outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, ...
s and encouraged the chartering of the organization.
On November 2, 1977, the New York State Banking Department took over MCU for a brief time, citing loan delinquencies and corruption of Board members.
In 1986, following the collapse of Hyfin Credit Union amidst charges of fraud and embezzlement, Hyfin was merged with Municipal Credit Union.
A computer error in 2001 after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
allowed credit union members to withdraw amounts in excess of their accounts. In the month following the attacks, $15 million was stolen from MCU ATMs by its own members. 118 members were charged in the thefts.
CEO Kam Wong was placed on leave in February 2018 and arrested for embezzlement and fraud later that year in May when the credit union was placed in conservatorship.
For at least five years, Wong had been participating in insurance fraud and cash embezzlement through MCU's ATMs, and spent millions of dollars of this cash on lottery tickets.
On November 19, 2018 Kam Wong, pled guilty in Manhattan federal court to embezzling millions of dollars from the Credit Union and was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
MCU was released from conservatorship in February 2022.
References
External links
*{{commons category-inline, Municipal Credit Union
Official website
Credit unions based in New York (state)
Companies based in New York City
Banks established in 1916