WASHINGTON—Issuing updated marijuana banking guidance is “at the top of the list” for the U.S. Treasury Department, according to Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“I can tell you we’re working on it as we speak,” he recently told a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The comments came in response to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who implored Mnuchin to work with the committee to develop rules for marijuana banking and taxation.
“There is this air of uncertainty about access to banking services,” Blumenauer said to Mnuchin. “The Obama administration issued some guidance to allow banks to open accounts for people who grow, process, and (provide) retail sales of marijuana. But still there are many of them who don’t have access to banking services. It is a threat to public safety.”
As CUToday.info reported, earlier this month Mnuchin, in a speech before the House Financial Services Committee, confirmed that he does not want to go back to the days where legal marijuana businesses were having to carry around “bags of cash” to pay their employees. Mnuchin noted with respect to the continued validity of the 2014 FinCEN guidance: “We are reviewing it, but the intent is not to take it down without a replacement that can deal with the current situation. We want to make sure that we can collect our necessary taxes and other things.”