In New York, taxi mogul Evgeny Friedman is locked in a court battle with Citibank, to whom he owes some $31 million after some medallion loans matured.
Citibank is looking to seize 87 of Freidman's 900 medallions in New York, which has seen medallion prices drop to about $870,000 last fall from a peak of about $1.2 million last spring. Freidman, the biggest medallion owner in the USA, also owns fleets in Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.
In an April letter to creditors, New York taxi commission officials and other stakeholders, Freidman's attorney, Brett Berman, called on industry regulators and medallion lenders to restructure and extend loans for his client and reform the industry.
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"If you want to ensure that medallion industry nationwide continues to operate, if you want to have services available to riders that don't have iPhones, if you want to have drivers that are vetted, then there's going to have to be a major change nationwide and city-by-city in terms of how they're going about enforcing the rules," said Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for Freidman.
Even in Nevada, where the taxi industry has successfully fought off attempts by Uber to establish a beachhead in recent years, there are signs that government resistance to rideshare services is softening. Last week, the Nevada Senate approved legislation that would create regulations that would allow people to hail a ride using a smartphone.
There are other signs that medallion industry's vitality is on unsteady footing.
Earlier this month, Medallion Financial Group—one of the country's largest creditors to medallion owners—reported in its financial disclosures that nearly 4.1% of its loans were late 31 days or more in the first three months of 2015, up from 2.2% in the previous quarter.
Charles Goodbar, a Chicago attorney who helps secure loans for medallion owners, said that financing has all but dried up. At the same time, new regulations, as well competition from ridesharing services, has reduced how much fleet owners in Chicago and elsewhere can lease their vehicles to cabbies.
"There's zero market," said Goodbar, who also owns 59 medallions. "In my case, a buyer would have to come to the table with about $220,000 in cash per medallion, because there isn't any financing available."