First New York’s Vik Muktavaram wants the credit union to grow for the right reasons
By Luke Nathan – Reporter, Albany Business Review
Aug 7, 2026
Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2026/08/07/vik-muktavaram-first-new-york-interview.html
Story Highlights
- Vik Muktavaram joined First New York Federal Credit Union as CEO earlier this year.
- First New York oversees more than $500 million in assets across eight branches.
- Muktavaram sees opportunities to grow — but wants to be discerning about how to pursue them.
As a longtime management consultant, Vik Muktavaram spent much of his career helping businesses solve problems and grow.
Today he’s using the same methods to lead First New York Federal Credit Union, which he joined earlier this year as CEO, following several years as an executive with Sunmark Credit Union.
“Part of my consulting approach typically always is not to jump to conclusions, but to gather the data,” Muktavaram said.
The executive spent much of his first three months on the job visiting the Colonie-based credit union’s eight branches and meeting individually or in small groups with employees.
First New York was founded in 1937 as Schenectady Teachers FCU, and educators still make up a key membership constituency. The organization oversees more than $500 million in assets and has eight branches across the region.
“Knowing the credit union is not just about knowing the numbers but actually knowing the people, knowing what makes the credit union tick,” Muktavaram said.
How did you make the jump from management consulting to Sunmark Credit Union here in the Capital Region?
One of my clients, sort of toward the end of my consulting career, was the Gates Foundation. As part of that, I worked on a project involving the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. So I was already working towards more of those mission-driven engagements. When I was recruited to go work at Sunmark, it just seemed like a natural fit at the time.
You quickly worked your way up there, from chief risk officer to CFO, and now you’re here.
Obviously, even when I worked at Sunmark, I knew of First New York, which has a great reputation. We are not the largest in the area. But within the membership, within the communities that we serve, we have a stellar reputation for service and meeting the members where they are at.
When the opportunity came along, I just sort of jumped at it. Here was an opportunity to build something. The way I describe it is, this is an opportunity to take a credit union from good to great.
Does First New York need to grow to stay competitive? You face pressures – the increasing cost of technology and whatever else. Can you stay the size that you are or do you have to grow?
We are not-for-profit – meaning, we still make a profit, but the profit goes to serving member needs.
The way I think about growth or scale is, it’s not growth for the sake of growth. It is growth only if it serves our member needs. If we think there’s an opportunity to serve more of the membership within our five counties, absolutely that’s growth that I would welcome. If we can serve the members beyond those five counties, I would welcome that growth.
We are not looking through the lens of how much more margin we can make.
Let’s talk a little bit about your loan book. Like many credit unions, you’re weighted toward consumer/residential. You do have commercial loans, though – is that an area you’d like to grow?
That’s definitely an area of focus for us. We have a strong commercial team. We are roughly about $65 million in commercial lending portfolio now.
This is where I actually look at the size we are as an opportunity. We’re not the largest, but we’re also not the smallest. We are in that unique space where maybe a larger bank or credit union may not be willing to do certain kinds of commercial deals, which we might be more willing to do.
On the other side of the coin, given that you are weighted in residential loans, auto loans, what’s your read on how Capital Region consumers are doing right now?
I think it’s a mixed bag. There are headwinds for sure – certainly inflation is a big factor. To some extent, the Capital Region tends to be a little more resilient relative to the national economy, and the reason for that is we have a much more diverse economy. We have strong manufacturing, a strong education sector. We also have a growing high-tech industry.
Part of the reason we tend to fare well even compared to other financial services players here is our core base is education. These are jobs that are a little bit more secure, that have a long-term tenure.
Do you have your eye on getting to $1 billion in assets, or is this not a metric that you think about?
It’s not like I’m driving toward getting to a billion dollars. If the growth happens, I want to grow for the right reasons. But the way we are growing, I’m reasonably optimistic. I look at it through the lens of: How can we improve our member experience? How can we offer the products that the members are looking for? Through that, the growth will happen organically.
What about inorganic growth?
We had one small acquisition a couple of years ago. If there is something that comes along that’s just the right fit, we’ll obviously be open to it. But it’s not something we are actively pursuing.
Interview was edited and condensed.
Vik Muktavaram
Title: President and Chief executive officer, First New York Federal Credit Union
Age: 54
Grew up: Hyderabad, India
Lives now: Albany
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Osmania University, India; master’s degree in computer science, Oklahoma State University; MBA, Columbia Business School
Family: Wife, two daughters
First New York Federal Credit Union
Members: 39,123
Total assets: $556.3 million
Full-time employees: 139
*As of March 31, according to a regulatory filing