Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the IRS faces “significant problems” due to the cash-only nature of the cannabis industry and urged lawmakers to address the issue “one way or another.” During his testimony to the House Appropriations subcommittee, Mnuchin didn’t take a stance on the issue of cannabis banking at large but said the […]
Federal financial regulators will no longer treat hemp businesses as suspicious, removing a major barrier between hemp-related businesses and traditional financial services. Previously, banks were required to file Suspicious Activity Reports with the federal government whenever they opened a hemp-related business account. See the original article at Ganjapreneur
The U.S. House voted 321-103 to pass the SAFE Banking Act on Sept. 25, the first major floor vote in Washington, D.C., for any cannabis reform legislation. H.R. 1595 will provide a safe harbor for financial institutions that work with cannabis business clients, effectively opening the door to formal banking relationships in the fragmented, federally illegal […]
Despite opposition from some cannabis legalization and social justice groups, the SAFE Banking Act, which would normalize banking for the cannabis industry, is set for a House vote this week. A letter from activists sent to House leaders last week urged lawmakers to bring the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act up for a vote before […]
Regulators won’t punish credit unions simply for working with marijuana businesses that are operating in compliance with state laws, the head of the federal agency that oversees the financial services providers said in a new interview. While the comments don’t signify a new shift in policy, and don’t take into account the fact that the […]
The attorneys general of 38 states and territories sent a letter to congressional leaders, urging them to allow banks to work with cannabis businesses without legal repercussions. Federal law still considers marijuana illegal, which exposes banks to legal risk if they handle weed-related money or transactions. The attorneys general say they want to move the […]
According to PayPal Inc.’s Q1 2019 lobbying report, the company added the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019 to its list of lobbying efforts in Congress. The House’s SAFE Banking Act of 2019, or H.R. 1595, and its accompanying Senate bill S. 1200, would allow banking services to cater to businesses that […]
Bank officials and cannabis industry representatives joined together to urge Congress to allow marijuana businesses access to banking services. At a hearing of the House Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions Subcommittee, lawmakers heard from advocates of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019 who are seeking support for the bill. Due to federal drug […]
Wells Fargo Bank recently terminated the campaign account of a Florida political candidate after inquiring into whether the candidate intended to receive donations “from the medical marijuana industry in any capacity,” according to documents released Monday by the campaign. Democrat Nikki Fried, running to be the state’s agriculture commissioner, is a former lobbyist who worked […]
A powerful congressional committee voted on Wednesday to reject a measure to protect banks that open accounts for marijuana businesses from being punished by federal financial regulators. Supporters then scrambled to craft a more limited measure focused on medical cannabis businesses, but it was ultimately withdrawn before a vote could take place. The broader measure […]
A bipartisan group of senators is stepping up the push to let marijuana businesses store their profits in banks, with a possible vote coming as soon as this week. Under the current federal prohibition of cannabis, many banks refuse to do businesses with marijuana growers, processors and sellers that operate legally in accordance with a […]
A steadily growing number of banks are willing to open accounts for marijuana businesses, according to new federal data. Even as a string of conflicting signals from the Trump administration surrounds the debate about legalization with uncertainty, the number of depository institutions that are actively banking the cannabis industry has increased roughly 18% since the […]
California Treasurer John Chiang wants the state to consider creating a government-owned bank that could serve cannabis businesses, one of several recommendations aimed at helping bring those businesses into the financial mainstream. The recommendations, the product of a year of meetings of a cannabis working group organized by Chiang’s office, suggest there may be ways […]
Opening a medical marijuana dispensary in Florida naturally comes with a lot of red tape. Marijuana is still considered an illegal substance at the federal level, despite the 29 states that have legalized it for recreational or medicinal use in recent years. That makes it nearly impossible for banks to fund marijuana distributing companies, which […]
Most cannabis business owners eventually confront the stresses of working in an all-cash environment. If you’re lucky, you’ve found one of the 368 reported banks or credit unions providing limited services to the industry under FinCEN guidelines. You might be experimenting with more exotic solutions like cryptocurrencies or pre-paid services like Tommy Chong’s Green Card. […]
As marijuana shops sprout in states that have legalized the drug, they face a critical stumbling block, a lack of access to the kind of routine banking services other businesses take for granted. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is leading an effort to make sure vendors working with legal marijuana businesses, from chemists who test […]
A handful of states are considering making recreational marijuana legal, and the businesses already doing that in Colorado could be examples for others. Because it’s still illegal at the federal level, they face different barriers than your average small business. From the very beginning of the growing process, Colorado cannabis plants are highly regulated. Tim […]
In a historic vote, the U.S. House passed a bipartisan amendment preventing the Treasury Department from spending any funding to penalize financial institutions that provide services to marijuana businesses that are legal under state law. The amendment passed 231 to 192. In May, the House passed an amendment prohibiting the DEA from undermining state medical […]
Colorado’s governor signed into law on Friday a measure to create the nation’s first state-run marijuana financial cooperative, potentially giving newly legalized cannabis vendors access to banking services through the U.S. Federal Reserve. The bill signed by Governor John Hickenlooper permits the creation of so-called “cannabis co-ops” – similar to credit unions without deposit insurance […]
Colorado legislators have proposed the creation of local nonprofit financial-service cooperatives—the business equivalent of a credit union—for legal marijuana shops as a way to force federal authorities to finally decide whether the cannabis industry can access critical banking services. While the bill allows the creation of co-ops similar to a credit union, their access to the nation’s […]