STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich.–Assets have ballooned at one small credit union here after it decided to serve marijuana-related businesses in the state.
Live Life Credit Union is reporting its assets have doubled to $26 million in just 10 months and it is adding $500,000 in cannabis-related deposits every week.
Live Life began offering banking services to legal cannabis businesses in Michigan just over a year ago, and it’s been the best business decision the credit union has made, CEO Karla Haglund to Crain’s Detroit Business.
Live Life made the decision to provide banking services to the state's legal cannabis industry just over a year ago amid a shaky regulatory framework and excessive risk. CEO Karla Haglund said it's the best business decision she's ever made.
Haglund told Crain’s Detroit Business Live Life has approximately 100 cannabis-related accounts out of its 1,400 member credit union, and in what will not be a surprise to anyone in credit unions, compliance has been a significant burden.
An ‘Adventure’
"It's been an adventure," Haglund told Crain’s. "The reporting is strenuous and complicated. It's been hard on our staff. A few of us have basically been working around the clock for the last eight months, but it's been worth it."
Haglund said the CU conducts interviews with prospective licensed business members and has full access to the state's point-of-sale inventory tracking system, full access to the company's financial records and quarterly audits of their business and inspection of all of their vendors.
"The reporting has been taxing on the credit union," Haglund told Crain’s Detroit Business. "The barrier to entry for getting into cannabis is the work."
Some Choose Not to Join
She said some prospective members have opted not to join the credit union once they learn of the work involved, while the CU itself has also turned other away. Live Life has hired two more employees since it started accepting cannabis business, upping its total to eight employees.
Haglund declined to tell the publication of the credit union’s fee structure, but it ranges from the hundreds to thousands of dollars per month based on the size of the account.