Marijuana industry

With the state only months away from allowing the sale of pot for recreational use, its top cannabis regulator is urging policymakers to consider creating a public bank to provide services to growers and dispensaries that might otherwise have nowhere else to bank.

The Maryland credit union will offer business services to the medical cannabis industry.

Calling the move "depressing," Chairman Ken LaRoe said the decision to stop working with medical marijuana firms came after certain investors objected. Recent moves by the federal government cemented the call.

Dueling blockchain stories — one arguing it was virtually useless, the other saying it could change real estate lending — seized the top spots this week, while readers also focused on tax reform aftermath and a key Senate retirement.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to rescind an Obama-era directive that helped foster the marijuana sector’s growth raises new risks for banks and credit unions that do business with growers and dispensaries.

Banks and their regulators quickly got back up to speed in markets hit hard by recent hurricanes, thanks in part to the lessons learned in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, a panel of regulators said Tuesday.

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.

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.