Banking

The number of banks and credit unions working with state-legal cannabis businesses has been on a steady decline since November 2019, according to a new FinCEN report.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell threw shade at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi yesterday, suggesting that she claimed cannabis was an effective treatment for COVID-19.

House leadership has included language giving the cannabis industry access to traditional banking and loan services as part of the latest federal coronavirus stimulus plan.

House Democrats have introduced legislation that would give cannabis businesses access to congressional coronavirus stimulus packages.

Congressional lawmakers are standing up for cannabis businesses’ right to access traditional financial services and the federal coronavirus stimulus packages that are currently unavailable to the industry.

Eric Kaufman is the Chief Revenue Officer for Dama Financial, an organization that provides cannabis businesses access to sustainable banking with FDIC-Insured banks eager to cooperate with the cannabis space.

Canadian cannabis companies will be given fair access to the $40 billion approved for federal coronavirus response loans.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday 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.”

President Donald Trump was secretly recorded in 2018 saying that cannabis use makes people “lose IQ points” during a discussion about Colorado’s legal market.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, a Republican from Idaho, says he does not support the SAFE Banking Act because it fails to address issues such as high cannabis potencies and marketing strategies that target children.

Federal regulators have removed barriers that blocked industrial hemp companies from accessing traditional financial services despite the crop’s federally legal status.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing cannabis businesses to take normal business tax deductions alongside several other pieces of cannabis legislation. The governor, however, opted to veto legislation allowing for cannabis use in hospitals.

The House of Representatives passed the SAFE Banking Act this afternoon in a historic and bipartisan landslide of support for giving state-legal cannabis companies access to banking services.

The SAFE Banking Act, which would normalize banking for the cannabis industry, is expected to receive a House vote next week.

A cadre of cannabis legalization advocates has called on House Democrats to delay a vote on the SAFE Banking Act in favor of pursuing more broad and “holistic” cannabis reforms, first.

Democratic leaders in the House intend for a full floor vote on the SAFE Banking Act by the end of September; lawmakers in the Senate, meanwhile, could likewise consider the bill — or their own version of the bill — by the year’s end.

The National Credit Union Administration says that credit unions are free to serve hemp businesses now that the crop has been federally legalized.

Lawmakers yesterday held the first Senate committee hearing to be aimed at addressing banking challenges for the cannabis industry; the hearing included arguments from financial institution representatives, state-legal cannabis professionals, and elected officials from states with reformed cannabis laws.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs has scheduled a hearing to consider the SAFE Banking Act despite hints from the Republican committee chair in April that such a hearing was unlikely.

Officials in West Virginia have canceled and reissued their request for banking solutions for the state’s upcoming medical cannabis industry after the first round’s five applicants failed to meet all of the state’s requirements.

Sister Kate is the founder of Sisters of the Valley, a collection of self-described cannabis nuns who grow CBD-rich cannabis in California.

Medical cannabis company Columbia Care, which operates in 12 states, has launched its own credit card for patients in New York. According to the company, the option has boosted sales in an otherwise cash-only marketplace and there are plans to introduce the card next in Illinois.

Despite the 2018 federal legalization of industrial hemp, banks are still hesitant to work with hemp-derived CBD companies, many of whom have lost their credit card processing capabilities in recent months.

The bill, which would create state-chartered banks that would work with the state’s cannabis industry, passed the Senate 35-1 and now moves to the Assembly for consideration.