MOUNT DORA, Fla.—In a move that reflects the difficulties marijuana businesses across the country face in finding FIs to take their money, First Green Bank here announced it will no longer serve the legal pot business.
Marijuana is approved for medical use in Florida.
The bank intends to close the accounts of its cannabis clients and won’t be handling their money past early January.
The bank was handling accounts for six of the state’s seven licensed producers of medical marijuana, according to the Miami Herald.
The challenge is one familiar to credit unions in states in which some form of cannabis is legal. The federal government still considers cannabis an illegal substance without medicinal value, so most FIs haven’t been willing to take their money—even though 29 states have legalized the drug for medical use, and some for recreational use.
The difficulty in marijuana businesses in this state finding an FI to work with are reflected in Denver’s Fourth Corner Credit Union’s struggles to open its doors.
As has been reported in CUToday.info, the Federal Reserve Bank has declined to provide the credit union—chartered to serve the legal cannabis industry in Colorado—with a master account, citing federal law, which states marijuana possession is a federal crime. NCUA also turned down the credit union for share insurance, citing the risk of a CU serving one industry.