A state-backed bank would not be financially feasible because capital requirements would be too high and it likely wouldn’t return profits to the state for at least 30 years, consultants concluded.
During his time as U.S. attorney general, Jeff Sessions was an outspoken opponent of the legalization of cannabis sales. Now that Sessions has resigned, legal marijuana is poised to become a growth industry.
The $506 million-asset GFA Federal Credit Union says it will begin accepting clients in the recreational marijuana business, making it the first Massachusetts financial institution to do so.
Aurora Cannabis in Edmonton, Alberta, said it recently agreed to a $150M term loan and a $50M line of credit from Bank of Montreal, the largest traditional bank investment into the marijuana industry to date.
Despite bipartisan support, the latest congressional effort to enable the legal marijuana industry's access to the banking system still faces plenty of roadblocks.
In a break with his own Justice Department, President Trump suggested Friday he would sign a bill co-authored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to protect financial institutions that help legal marijuana businesses.
The bipartisan legislation would enable business in legal-marijuana states to access banking services, removing a key hurdle for a fast-growing industry.
With the state only months away from allowing the sale of pot for recreational use, its top cannabis regulator is urging policymakers to consider creating a public bank to provide services to growers and dispensaries that might otherwise have nowhere else to bank.
