Marijuana industry

A broad bill that amends the Controlled Substances Act to formally recognize state laws legalizing marijuana has the support of the financial services industry.

Nearly a dozen Republicans joined all of the committee's Democrats in supporting the legislation, which would enable banks to serve legal marijuana businesses.

Banks and credit unions may be moving one step closer to federal legislation freeing them to serve legal pot businesses, but the path to enactment is still fraught with huge challenges.

The House Financial Services panel is considering legislation making it illegal for a federal regulator to penalize a financial institution accepting insured deposits from a legal marijuana business.

The House Financial Services panel is considering legislation making it illegal for a federal regulator to penalize banks that accept FDIC-insured deposits from a legal marijuana business.

After six years, a bill from Rep. Ed Perlmutter to allow banks and credit unions to serve legal marijuana businesses is finally getting some traction.

After six years, Rep. Ed Perlmutter tells American Banker he is finally seeing some traction on his legislation to allow banks to serve legal marijuana businesses.

Attorney General-nominee William Barr signaled this week he was not likely to crack down on financial institutions serving pot businesses, but even if he is confirmed and sticks with his assurance, the situation is far from resolved

Attorney General-nominee William Barr signaled this week he was not likely to crack down on financial institutions serving pot businesses, but even if he is confirmed and sticks with his assurance, the situation is far from resolved

Global Payout is providing software to the makers of point of sale hardware for the cannabis industry, integrating payment card processing with other business services common for dispensaries.

A state-backed bank would not be financially feasible because capital requirements would be too high and it likely wouldn’t return profits to the state for at least 30 years, consultants concluded.

As more states permit medical or recreational use, and legal uncertainty persists at the federal level, CUs' decision whether to do business with marijuana firms is trickier than ever.

As Congress races to fund the government, a criminal justice reform bill could also include the STATES Act, which would provide safe harbor for credit unions serving the legal marijuana industry.

The Anchorage-based institution said its decision to enter the pot banking space was driven partly by public-safety concerns in a cash-based industry.

During his time as U.S. attorney general, Jeff Sessions was an outspoken opponent of the legalization of cannabis sales. Now that Sessions has resigned, legal marijuana is poised to become a growth industry.

The STATES Act allows the industry to resolve conflicts between state and federal laws by granting legitimate cannabis companies access to the financial system in marijuana-legalized states, writes Heather Peterson Altepeter, CEO of the National Merchants Association.

The $506 million-asset GFA Federal Credit Union says it will begin accepting clients in the recreational marijuana business, making it the first Massachusetts financial institution to do so.

Many financial institutions are unaware that they're banking marijuana-related businesses, pot bankers and regtech experts say.

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.

Despite bipartisan support, the latest congressional effort to enable the legal marijuana industry's access to the banking system still faces plenty of roadblocks.