As detailed by The New York Times and alleged by Mayor Bill de Blasio, a handful of credit unions and taxi brokers convinced cab drivers, many of them immigrants, to take out hefty loans, using their taxi medallions as collateral.

"We're learning more and more about unfair pressure tactics," Levine said. "The credit unions were aiding and abetting this and were riding high for a while."

The rationale was that medallions were worth their weight in gold. But then, ride-sharing services such as Lyft and Uber came along and devastated the taxi business.

Burdened by loans many drivers did not understand and by a city regulatory system that allowed ride-sharing services to operate without many of the rules taxi drivers must follow, the drivers, and the credit unions that loaned them money found themselves underwater.

"The city is culpable," Levine said, but added that the credit unions also acted in a predatory manner that violated the service that credit unions are supposed to provide.

"Those values were not adhered to," he said.

Two large credit unions—Melrose Credit Union and LOMTO Federal Credit Union—failed and were merged with Teachers Federal Credit Union.  But that credit union did not assume control over the troubled taxi loans, leaving them, in the hands of the NCUA.

The NCUA took control of those loans.

And the agency, Levine said, is being too rigid in negotiating new loan terms for the drivers.

"They're setting a bad example for other credit unions," he said, adding that the agency should have taken action sooner against the credit unions he said acted in a predatory manner.

"The NCUA allowed this to happen without intervening," he said.

The NCUA denied the assertion that it is not assisting drivers.

"Credit unions are founded on the principle of people helping people," NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood wrote last week in an op-ed in the New York Daily News. "The NCUA is working hard to find solutions to borrowers' needs without compromising the agency's obligations to maintain the safety and soundness of the credit union system under federal law, and we are steadfastly committed to that goal."

Levine also said that New York City officials are refusing to help drivers.

"The city is not being fair either," he said.

The city created the taxi medallion system and the way medallions are sold. And the city has allowed the ride-sharing services to operate with fewer rules than the taxi drivers must follow.

Levine has led a campaign aimed at convincing the city to purchase the loans and then negotiate with the lenders and the NCUA.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that a bailout for the taxi loans would cost $13 billion, an amount that Levine termed "outrageous."

"The cost to the city would be far less than that," he added.

He said the actual cost would be about $850 million, much less than the city made during the "bubble years" when the cost of obtaining a taxi medallion soared.

"We owe it to the owner-drivers whose lives were ruined," Levine said.

Levine looks back fondly at the founding of the Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union, which is now a certified Community Development Financial Institution, with $12 million in assets and almost 4,000 members.

"It's one of the proudest things I've done in the past," said the councilman, who has represented northern Manhattan since 2014.

He said his connection to the credit union helped him in his first campaign.

"The credit union base was really what allowed me to run for office," he said, adding that he hopes that the taxi crisis does not color peoples' views of the credit union system.

"It's an incredibly powerful movement," he said. "I hope people don't lose sight of that."