CALIFORNIA
Title: California Moves Forward On Effort To Bank Marijuana Businesses
Author: Pymnts.com
Date: 29 January 2018
URL: https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2018/california-marijuana-dispensary-weed-law/
Extract:
California is pressing forward with efforts to provide legal banking services to marijuana businesses as cannabis companies struggle to get banked.
Reports in The San Francisco Chronicle said California policymakers introduced a bill last Thursday (Jan. 25) that would allow banks and credit unions to provide account services for legal cannabis companies. The legislation was spearheaded by State Sen. Robert Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), reports said, and would let financial institutions (FIs) provide checking and savings accounts to these businesses and would allow them to issue checks.
The bill, SB930, is one of several concepts that have surfaced in the state in recent months while California supports a growing industry. Marijuana became legal for recreational use on the first of this year, but the drug remains illegal under the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s rule, which has prevented federally regulated financial institutions from providing services to marijuana companies in places like California and other states in which the drug is legal.
Other policymakers have considered the establishment of a state-backed bank to provide financial services for the industry. Reports last November said California Treasurer John Chiang proposed this idea and others along with the Treasurer’s working group established to address key issues pertaining to legal marijuana companies in California.
EXPO IN COLORADO
Founder Larry Lipman writes
I had the honor of testifying at the Colorado Senate hearing regarding closed loop banking.
After hearing from me that the federal government put the squeeze on one of the country’s largest banks to discontinue their bank contract with one of the largest states in the country the state of Colorado decided to re write their bill to manage the program.
We are awaiting what the bill will read.
It’s back. I am confident we are seeing a repeat of 2013 when I was a major payday loan processor and the banks dropped out
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
