Federal financial regulator Rodney Hood\u2014a board member and former chairman of the federal National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)\u2014says marijuana legalization is not a question of \u201cif\u201d but \u201cwhen,\u201d and he\u2019s again offering advice on how to navigate the federal-state conflict that has left many banks reluctant to work with cannabis businesses.<\/p>\n
During an interview with PBC Conference that was released on Wednesday, Hood talked about the \u201cprohibition mindset\u201d that has influenced banking activity as more states have moved to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use. He said that it\u2019s important for financial institutions to \u201creally prepare\u201d for what he expects to be a \u201cbright future\u201d for the cannabis sector.<\/p>\n
Hood recognized that the marijuana industry has been \u201cunderserved\u201d by the financial services sector under the umbrella of federal prohibition, but he said that while people commonly associated the market with urban communities, there are also opportunities for rural markets. And that could be partially facilitated by more modest reform legislation in Congress to simply protect banks that work with marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal regulators.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201call the more reason why we want to make sure that [cannabis businesses are] getting the loans that they need to create viable, sustainable businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\nPassing the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act could help \u201cbuild infrastructure,\u201d he said, and the country is going to \u201csee just as much success in this industry as we have with some of the other industries of a bygone era.\u201d<\/p>\n
That bill has cleared the House in some form five times now, but it\u2019s continued to stall in the Senate under both Democratic and Republican control.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), sponsor of the SAFE Banking Act, has said in recent weeks that he\u2019s \u201cirritated\u201d that Congress hasn\u2019t been able to pass his bill with Democratic majorities in both chambers and control of the White House. However, while he\u2019s retiring from Congress at the end of this session, he said this month that he\u2019s \u201cgonna get that darn thing passed this year.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Hood said he\u2019s \u201choping that we will see that cross the finish line soon.\u201d In the interim, credit unions \u201cmust embrace the cannabis-related businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe, as an industry, need to be prepared and postured to make sure that gone is the day that cannabis-related business owners are part of the prohibition era,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I mean by that the fact that we have mainline banks and credit unions who perhaps have been frightened, timid or skittish about bringing some of these legitimate businesses that are legal in some states\u201438 to be exact\u2014we need to now recognize that we have the safeguards in place.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that while Obama era guidance to federal prosecutors that laid out enforcement priorities for state-legal marijuana activity was rescinded under the Trump administration, financial institutions still have 2014 guidance on managing cannabis banking that remains in place.<\/p>\n The official, who previously participated in a PBC Conference event where he criticized Congress for failing to reform marijuana laws<\/a>, also gave advance to credit unions on data collection, compliance, virtual currency and more to navigate the cannabis space.<\/p>\n Hood made similar points in a Marijuana Moment op-ed last year<\/a>, saying that legalization is an inevitability\u2014and it makes the most sense for government agencies to get ahead of the policy change to resolve banking complications now.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very encouraging to have a banking regulator proactively working with the cannabis industry,\u201d Joshua Radbod, CEO of the PBC Conference, told Marijuana Moment. \u201cHuge thank you to Rodney and the NCUA for educating their credit union members on how to find ways to bank the underserved cannabis business community.\u201d<\/p>\n While marijuana businesses often struggle to find banks that are willing to take them on as clients due to risks caused by the ongoing federal prohibition of cannabis, a recent study found that banking activity actually increases in states that legalize marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n As of June 30, there were 706 financial institutions that had filed requisite reports saying they were\u00a0actively serving cannabis clients<\/a>. Thats\u00a0up from 689 in the previous quarter<\/a>\u00a0but still down from a peak of 747 in late 2019.<\/p>\n A pro-reform Republican senator recently slammed Democrats for\u00a0failing to advance marijuana banking reform<\/a>\u00a0despite having a congressional majority and control of the presidency.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, the secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department recently said that\u00a0freeing up banks to work with state-legal marijuana businesses<\/a>\u00a0would \u201cof course\u201d make the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s (IRS) job of collecting taxes easier.<\/p>\n With respect to the SAFE Banking Act, a bipartisan coalition of two dozen governors recently implored congressional leaders to\u00a0finally enact marijuana banking reform<\/a>\u00a0through the large-scale defense legislation.<\/p>\n A group of small marijuana business owners also recently made the case that the incremental banking policy change\u00a0could actually help support social equity efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amazon Endorses GOP-Led Bill To Federally Legalize Marijuana<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Federal Financial Regulator Talks Marijuana Industry\u2019s \u2018Bright Future\u2019 And Need For Banking Access<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Federal financial regulator Rodney Hood\u2014a board member and former chairman of the federal National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)\u2014says marijuana legalization is not a question of \u201cif\u201d but \u201cwhen,\u201d and he\u2019s again offering advice on how to navigate the federal-state conflict that has left many banks reluctant to work with cannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52579,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52578\/revisions\/52579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Federal Financial Regulator Talks Marijuana Industry\u2019s \u2018Bright Future\u2019 And Need For Banking Access<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"