SACRAMENTO, Calif.–A group put together by California’s state treasurer has issued a report that calls for a multi-state consortium to advocate for removal of federal legal and regulatory roadblocks to financial institutions offering banking services to the marijuana industry.
In addition, it also calls for creating a state-chartered corporate CU or a “bankers’ bank” to serve California’s cannabis industry.
“The final step in providing banking services to the cannabis industry is removing federal legal and regulatory roadblocks, the end game of which would allow cannabis to be treated like other cash-intensive regulated industries, such as casinos and pawnshops,” states the report from the group set up by California State Treasurer John Chiang.
To achieve that goal, the report recommends a “multistate consortium should be created which includes representatives of cannabis-legal states, local governments, the cannabis and financial services industries, and law enforcement.”
In turn, the consortium would engage in “congressional and executive-branch policy advocacy, which should be coordinated to make sure that cannabis-legal states speak with one voice,” in addition to other activities.
Published by the Cannabis Banking Working Group, the “Banking Access Strategies for Cannabis-Related Businesses” report comes on the heels of voter approval of the decriminalization of adult recreational cannabis. The result of that vote, said Chiang, will be the expansion of the industry, with estimates legal cannabis will generate more than $7 billion in annual sales in its first few years of operation, beginning on Jan. 1, 2018.”
But, as credit unions know well, despite the vote by Californians, cannabis remains illegal under federal law and brings potential legal threats to credit unions and banks that serve the industry.