State-legal marijuana companies locked out of using financial services due to the federal prohibition of cannabis have been warned not to deceive banks about the nature of their business. Benjamin William Perry and Alex McFall of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP law firm, writing for Lexology, said there’s a strong incentive for cannabis businesses to
Holding large sums of cash is too risky for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) personnel. Hmm. The agency would prefer electronic tax payments. Okay. They say the cash-based system in use now is tedious and risky. Absolutely. The cannabis industry has been clamoring for banking access. Cash is notoriously tricky to track. Rep. David Joyce (R-OH)
For advocates and cannabis business owners alike, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act needs to happen sooner rather than later. And in a glimmer of hope, the new chairman of the Senate Banking Committee told reporters he's open to advancing a bill that would protect banks serving state-legal cannabis businesses. The caveat? The
For a state that took 22 years to get from medical marijuana legalization to recreational adult-use sales, California is making significant strides with the state's cannabis industry. On Sept. 29, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed several cannabis-related bills into law. This is effectively paving the way for much-anticipated (and sorely needed) banking and financial
Fewer banks reported that they worked with cannabis-related businesses in the latest report from Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), but it’s not clear why. FinCEN suggested in its report that this short-term decline could be because financial institutions are exceeding the 90-day requirement for filing suspicious activity reports (SARs). Banks must file SARs when working
A renewed push for cannabis banking regulations has seen the latest coronavirus relief bill adopt them as it was approved in the House of Representatives. The Health and Economic Recover Omnibus Solutions (HEROES) Act, aka H.R. 6800, includes many facets, and cannabis banking provisions brought over from the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act
Going to the cannabis dispensary in the U.S. typically means a stop at the ATM first, since plastic won’t work to get your medical or adult-use products. Recently, a large, multi-state cannabis company decided to solve this problem for themselves and launched their own credit card. Columbia Care is a medical cannabis business that has
The U.S. House of Representatives has made it clear with the passage of the SAFE Banking Act that cannabis banking is a bipartisan issue with a supermajority vote of 321 to 103. Nearly half of the Republican members of the House and all but one Democrat voted in favor of the Secure and Fair Enforcement
Cannabis-related businesses are at the front of a new industry with plenty of room to grow, but they lack access to some basic tools that start-ups in other industries have. That may soon change. Federal prohibition has prevented the cannabis sector from accessing significant resources. After hearing from industry advocates, U.S. House Small Business Committee
