ALEXANDRIA, Va.–NCUA has issued a memo offering updates on providing financial services to hemp businesses.
As CUToday.info previously reported, NCUA provided guidance on the topic last year after the crop was legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill. The agency said the new document’s “purpose is to provide additional information for credit unions that are serving, or considering serving, legal hemp-related businesses, as they, too, have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Lawful hemp businesses provide exciting new opportunities for rural communities, and credit unions should carefully consider whether they can safely and properly serve lawfully operating hemp-related businesses within their fields of membership,” NCUA Chairman Rodney E. Hood stated in the memo. “It is important that credit unions stay current with the federal, state and Native American tribal laws and regulations that apply to any hemp-related businesses they serve.”
Hood said the letter does not seek to provide a formal interpretation of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules for the crop.
17 FAQs
The memo includes 17 FAQs related to banking hemp businesses, and includes its own rules for serving the industry, updates about the status of the USDA’s interim final rule, and compliance for hemp production.
“Examiners will be collecting data through the examination process concerning the types of services credit unions are providing to hemp-related businesses” in order to “help the agency better understand how it can assist credit unions serving hemp-related businesses,” the memo states.