Blue Line Protection Group Inc (BLPG)

[OMOLIVES]

!Hypur in the news again! ... :

Pot Fintechs Hope House Bill Helps Make Banking Easier
Posted April 4, 2019, 5:31 AM


exctracted-

Cash to Digital

Most cannabis transactions are in cash. The same is true of payroll, tax payment and purchasing.

If enacted, the SAFE Banking Act would allow cannabis companies to switch their payment processing to electronic payments via credit and debit cards, with direct deposits into bank accounts. That could be achieved with a simple hardware attachment to a point-of-sale machine, Curren said.

He projects a significant chunk of cash could shift to electronic payments if the bill were enacted. His estimate is based on consumer trends in traditional retail payments, where more than 60 percent of transactions occur via credit or debit cards.

“By enabling that, you can imagine like 60 percent of that $3 billion dollars will now move to something electronic and then move into bank accounts rather than cash on the street,” Curren said.

Increased Interest

Many financial institutions and companies that want to do business with the cannabis industry are waiting and watching the bill’s progress.

In the last six to eight months, Hypur, another fintech payments and compliance platform for helping financial institutions work with dispensaries, has seen “a real uptick in terms of interest from financial institutions that are very eager to enter this market,” said John Vardaman, Hypur’s general counsel.

“Obviously everybody’s watching what happens on the Hill,” he said.

Vardaman, a former Justice Department attorney, helped write 2014 guidance to federal prosecutors on limiting cannabis-related money-laundering cases against financial institutions in states where the drug is legal.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the memo in January 2018, raising additional regulatory concerns for companies engaging the cannabis sector.

The SAFE Banking act won’t address every issue for the financial services industry, but it would resolve “the most fundamental issue” of legal jeopardy financial institutions can find themselves in just for trying to bank the cannabis industry, Vardaman said.

“There are a lot of details that need to be filled out in terms of implementation, but that would constitute a significant improvement on what we have now,” he said.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/pot-fintechs-hope-house-bill-helps-make-banking-easier