Marijuana banking

With marijuana sales set to become legal in California soon, a working group there says that a state-backed financial institution should be among the measures weighed to address the lack of banking services available to the pot industry.

Bank of Montreal and Toronto-Dominion Bank are emerging as the banks of choice for Canada's burgeoning marijuana industry, even as some lenders shun the sector.

First Green Bank in Florida started researching the business after its chairman saw how medical marijuana had helped his wife cope with a severe injury. The bank is now turning a profit a year after adding its first pot-related client -- and there could be lessons there for credit unions.

The Florida bank started researching the business after Ken LaRoe, its chairman, saw how medical marijuana had helped his wife cope with a severe injury. First Green is now turning a profit on this business a year after adding its first pot-related client.

The machine is among the more commonly pitched solutions for high-risk merchants that can't normally handle payment cards because banks won’t partner with them. But for dispensaries, they can be a hassle.

The cashless ATM is meant to make it easier for legal dispensaries and other high-risk stores to accept card payments. But for Alden Linn, owner of World of Weed, it became a hassle.

Though recreational pot is legal in a number of U.S. states, big banks don’t want to work with cannabis sellers. And that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

The nation’s largest state set out to bring a once-illicit industry into the financial mainstream but is now running into a Washington, D.C.-size barrier.

It may be a bigger challenge than financial institutions realize to avoid the cannabis sector, which includes a whole host of ancillary businesses from agricultural supply sellers to real estate developers.

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