Marijuana banking

A Florida politician who has run a pro-medical marijuana campaign said Wells Fargo closed her account over her ties to the industry, adding that the incident was an example of the challenges legal cannabis businesses face from the U.S. financial system.

Because the legal cannabis industry is typically considered too high-risk for most banks and payment processors to work with, most technology solutions are designed to duplicate the familiar process of paying by card.

Banks and marijuana dispensaries are getting closer to having a more cohesive relationship. But not close enough to bring cannabis sellers out of the high-risk category.

Seeing an opportunity to address the multi-billion dollar cannabis industry’s needs for payments processings, Zodaka is launching with a system that focuses more on price than process.

Federal bank regulators consider roughly a dozen new rules; firms tout tools to help financial institutions bank legal marijuana-related businesses; Mick Mulvaney defends CFPB enforcement powers; and more from this week's most-read stories.

Readers respond to Mulvaney's changes to the CFPB's consumer board, weigh a proposal regarding fair lending, react to adoption of pot banking regtech and more.

Several firms are touting tools to help financial institutions bank legal marijuana-related businesses, an industry expected to yield $10 billion in retail sales this year.

First Green Bank in Florida had to stop holding deposits for licensed marijuana sellers as a condition of making a deal.

Starbucks achieved rapid adoption of its mobile card app by building it on top of the highly successful Starbucks closed-loop gift card. Such a model could also apply to the cannabis market, which is largely shunned by mainstream banks and card networks.

Aurora Cannabis in Edmonton, Alberta, said it recently agreed to a $150M term loan and a $50M line of credit from Bank of Montreal, the largest traditional bank investment into the marijuana industry to date.