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Congressman Blumenauer Lauds House Passage of Federal Legislation to Give Cannabis Businesses Access to Banking Services

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Under SAFE Banking Act, cannabis businesses would not have to operate in cash, which has made Portland-area stores and workers a target for violent robberies.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: On April 19th, 2021 the U.S. House of Representatives passed federal legislation to provide legitimate cannabis businesses access to banking services, an issue that has long been championed by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. The bipartisan passage of the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in the 117th Congress comes as Portland-area cannabis businesses and their workers continue to be targeted with violent robberies that have been linked to a system that forces cannabis businesses to deal almost exclusively in cash.

“Cannabis will soon be a $20 billion industry and is overwhelmingly supported by the American public. The insane prohibition on banking services serves no one’s interest, except for money launderers, tax evaders, or those who are going to rob these cash-rich businesses,” Blumenauer said. “As we continue to push forward with full legalization, addressing this irrational, unfair, and unsafe denial of banking services to state-legal cannabis businesses is a top priority. This is a critical element of reform that can’t wait, and I urge our cannabis champions in the Senate to take up this legislation as soon as possible.”

Under the federal prohibition on cannabis, banks and credit unions are currently prohibited from serving cannabis businesses, even with financial products as simple as savings accounts or payroll checks. Notwithstanding the financial and practical hardships facing legal cannabis businesses, forcing these businesses to operate on a cash-only basis creates a public safety risk and makes tracking revenue more difficult for tax purposes.

The cash-only nature of cannabis businesses also makes them easy and frequent targets for robberies, which puts workers at risk. According to a March 2021 report by Willamette Week, in the preceding 10 months, Portland cannabis shops were robbed, burglarized, or looted 95 times – often at gunpoint – resulting in one tragic fatality.

The legislation passed in the House would prohibit federal regulators from taking punitive measures against depository institutions that provide banking services to legitimate cannabis-related businesses and ancillary businesses like the electricians, plumbers, and the landlords that serve them. The SAFE Banking Act also requires a GAO study and annual regulator reports to Congress to ensure equal access to credit and to reduce barriers to marketplace entry for potential and existing minority- and women-owned cannabis-related businesses.

Full text of the SAFE Banking Act can be found here.

Dama Financial, Leading Provider of Access to Banking & Financial Solutions for Cannabis Businesses, Announces Completion of $12.6 Million Growth Equity Raise

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Dama will leverage the new round of investment to accelerate its already impressive growth, continue to address the lack of financial service products being offered to the cannabis industry, recruit top talent, and scale the business with the backing and support of its investors.

CALIFORNIA: Dama Financial, the premier provider of access to banking and payment solutions through its FDIC-insured banking partners for the rapidly growing legal cannabis industry, today announced the completion of its $12.6 million Series B funding round, bringing Dama’s total funding to approximately $24 million to date. The round was led by a group of strategic new investors.  Currently serving over 7% of the legal cannabis businesses in California, operational in 12 states and with over 50,000 consumers with digital wallets in the United States, Dama has processed over $2 billion in transaction value since inception.

“In one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, Dama is bringing desperately needed financial services to businesses and consumers alike that are safe, secure, compliant and efficient,” said Anh Hatzopoulos, CEO and Co-founder at Dama. “We have spent four years building a platform to enable safe, compliant financial services for cannabis businesses and now is the time to take Dama to the next level.”

“Dama has brought together the right team and technology that will position them as a clear payment solutions leader in the cannabis industry for years to come,” said Dan Englander, of Ursula Investors. “Dama continues to innovate solutions for the serious payments problems faced by the industry and we are excited to see that accelerate. ”

Since November 2020, six new states have passed legalization measures for cannabis and a record-high percentage of Americans now support legalization. The cannabis industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world with the global cannabis market expected to hit $47 billion and U.S. sales of legal cannabis expected to quintuple by 2025. According to Arcview Research, legal cannabis sales in 2019 grew by 46% to $14.8 billion, which represents the highest annual rate of growth to date. Dama’s payment solutions solve complicated banking problems for cannabis dispensaries and facilitate seamless consumer transaction at mobile points of sale.

California Cannabis Authorities Publish Proposed Regulations to Facilitate Financial Services for Cannabis Businesses

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CALIFORNIA: The California state cannabis licensing authorities—Bureau of Cannabis Control, California Department of Food and Agriculture and California Department of Public Health—provided notice to the public of proposed emergency regulations to implement the provisions of Assembly Bill 1525 (Jones–Sawyer, 2020). The proposed regulations are intended to facilitate greater access to financial services for licensed cannabis businesses that face challenges obtaining banking, insurance and other financial services commonly available to other businesses.

The proposed regulations create a pathway for licensees to authorize sharing of non-public information with selected financial institutions and provide a mechanism for financial institutions to more readily conduct the federally required reviews of the cannabis business. By reducing the burden of providing financial services to cannabis businesses, more financial institutions may be willing to provide services, thereby reducing the need to keep cash on hand and improving public safety.

The proposed regulatory text and supporting documents can be viewed at the following links:

Following the required minimum five working-day notice to the public, the licensing authorities will file the emergency regulations with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). The five calendar-day formal public comment period will begin when OAL publishes the proposed regulations as being “under review” on its website.

NutraRisk Expands Cannabis Program For Recreational And Medicinal Operations

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CALIFORNIA: NutraRisk, a division of Worldwide Facilities, announces that it is expanding its offering to include an exclusive cannabis program, providing General and Product Liability for medicinal and recreational operations.

NutraRisk can also place risks, in the eight states where recreational cannabis is legal, in another new and expanded Recreational Cannabis Program. In addition to these new General Liability Products, they can now provide a Crime option for the cannabis industry as well.

These programs represent some of the most tailored insurance coverage available for cannabis, CBD and hemp manufacture and sale.

“These insurance products are not yet mainstream, and the regulatory landscape is challenging. The cannabis industry at large faces significant challenges in finding comprehensive coverage,” says Morgan Moore, Life Science Practice Leader at NutraRisk.  “Many carriers hesitate to write these exposures and those that do often have very restrictive exclusions.”

NutraRisk has partnered with a few carriers that have decided that now is the time to enter into this sector and provide coverage for the various types of exposures. Coverage options include General and Product Liability up to $2 million, as well as Excess Liability up to $5 million. The approved classifications include (but are not limited to): cultivation – indoor, greenhouse, and outdoor operations, dispensaries / retail shops, growers, laboratories, transporters, recreational and medicinal marijuana.

“There are huge opportunities for retail insurance agents to increase their presence in this untapped and growing market,” Moore adds. “NutraRisk continues to partner with the innovative insurance carriers who are willing to explore cannabis coverages. Our Cannabis team consists of Casualty, Property and Financial Service Brokers who specialize in this space and have proprietary coverages available that are inclusive of the risks involved.”

“The cannabis industry represents the most tangible Crime risk in the history of insurance,” says Brian Savitch, Financial Services Specialist at NutraRisk. “With no banking solution in sight, this will remain a cash business. Unfortunately, most businesses have no idea that their cash on hand is insurable or that this type of insurance even exists.” Savitch adds, “Fortunately, we’ve partnered with a carrier, that is committed to cannabis, to offer a proprietary Crime product that will help bring peace of mind to cannabis business owners.”

Brian Savitch has an extensive background in D&O, E&O and Cyber. Over the past two years he has focused that expertise on the cannabis industry. Expect these ancillary lines to come to the forefront as sophisticated investors push insureds to properly round out their corporate insurance portfolios.

 

 

Largest U.S. Banks Host Accounts for Marijuana Businesses, Says American Banker

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FLORIDA: A recent study commissioned by industry journal American Banker reveals that the nation’s four largest banks have opened accounts for pot shops and marijuana-related businesses. Conducted by MRB Monitor, a firm that helps financial institutions identify the risks associated with the marijuana industry, the study examined public records in the state of Massachusetts and found that 34 percent of businesses that filed to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts between June 2015 and September 2016 had one or more accounts at Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, or JPMorgan Chase.

If a similar pattern of working with the marijuana industry takes hold in Washington D.C. and the U.S. states that have legalized marijuana, the prospect of financial services for cannabis outfits may not be as dire as it at first appears.

Bank of America seems to have been the most accommodating. Over half of the marijuana businesses included in the survey had accounts at the bank, though it previously told the Statesman Journal that, “As a federally regulated financial institution, we abide by federal law and do not bank marijuana-related businesses.”

Guidelines issued by federal authorities in 2014 appeared to have offered financial institutions a legal avenue to provide their services to marijuana-related businesses (MRBs). Back then, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), part of the U.S. Treasury Department, provided guidance[3] it said was meant to enhance the availability of financial services for, and the financial transparency of, marijuana-related businesses.

Yet, under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), it is illegal to manufacture, distribute, or dispense marijuana, and marijuana – like heroin, LSD and ecstasy – remains a Schedule 1 substance under the statute.

In December 2016, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, along with nine other senators sent a letter to FinCEN requesting guidance on how banking services might be offered to ‘indirect businesses’ that provide services to the state-sanctioned marijuana industry.

Hopefully, after nomination season comes to a close, a response to that letter will be forthcoming; there’s a lot at stake. As ArcView Market Research wrote, “Cannabis is arguably the fastest growing industry in the world. Regulated marijuana sales in North America totaled $6.9 billion in 2016, a 30 percent increase from 2015. Sales are projected to increase to $21.6 billion by the year 2021 representing a 26 percent compound annual growth rate.”