NCUA Denies Request on Bids for Two Failed Taxi Medallion Lending CUs

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) denied my request for information on bids for failed taxi medallion lenders LOMTO Federal Credit Union and Melrose Credit Union.

Teachers Federal Credit Union assumed the members and most shares as well as some loans and other assets of LOMTO FCU and Melrose CU.

In early October, I contacted NCUA seeking information on the bids for the two failed credit unions.

An NCUA spokesperson replied:

Q: Was Teachers FCU the only bidder for LOMTO? If not, how many bidders were there? If there were multiple bidders, how did Teachers bid compare to others?

A: Decline comment.

Q: Was Teachers FCU the only bidder for Melrose? If not, how many bidders were there? If there were multiple bidders, how did Teachers bid compare to others?

A: Decline comment.

Subsequently, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking written documents, such as a bid summary of winning and losing bids shared with the NCUA Board .

On November 23, NCUA denied my FOIA request citing exemptions at 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), (5), (6), and (8).

But why this lack of transparency?

Unlike NCUA, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation discloses a bid summary regarding all bids to purchase a failed bank.

It appears that NCUA is abusing FOIA exemptions to deny access to information that another federal agency openly discloses.