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oseph Vincent, the director of legal and regulatory affairs for the state's Department of Financial Institutions, said the state knows of about 12 financial institutions that are doing business with the cannabis industry, with three credit unions and two banks holding the majority of the accounts. Vincent said the state appealed directly to the executives of these state-chartered financial institutions to encourage them to take cannabis cash.
"We felt that it was incumbent on us as a public-safety concern to establish some banking relationships for marijuana-related businesses and stop this from being an all-cash business," Vincent said.
Spokane's Numerica Credit Union has more than 200 cannabis business accounts, according to spokesperson Kelli Hawkins. Hawkins said the credit union's board of directors decided to do business with the weed industry because they felt weed businesses holding millions of dollars in cash on location would become a safety issue.
"Obviously we didn't make the decision lightly. We had long conversations about the risks, and our board of directors felt it was about ensuring the safety of the community," Hawkins said. "We needed to make sure that these businesses that are in the towns we serve would have a safe place to deposit their cash."
Carmella Houston, a spokesperson for Salal Credit Union, said their Seattle offices were inundated with more than 2,000 calls when people first learned that they were accepting cannabis businesses. Houston said they have opened 300 cannabis business accounts since June of 2014 and cannabis checking accounts could form up to 80 percent of the credit union's net worth.
"We actually turn down more accounts than we open," Houston said. "We are very particular about the business accounts we accept. They need to be professional business people with strong business acumen who are willing to follow all of the guidelines that have been put forth."
Salal's hesitancy to open an account for any cannabis entrepreneur who walks in the door is because the federal government currently puts a heavy burden on these financial institutions to make sure their weed-related business accounts are complying with all state laws. In February of 2014, just as Colorado and Washington were setting up their regulated weed markets, the US Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a written guidance saying that they would not charge a bank with federal crimes for accepting weed money if the financial institution made sure that the business was following all state laws and the directives of a previous memo from the Department of Justice. That memo, frequently referred to as the Cole Memo, said the federal government would take a hands-off approach to states with legal weed if those states kept the drugs out of the hands of kids, kept weed within their states, and kept profits from drugs sales away from organized crime.
Both documents are legal memos that do not change the federal government's prohibition of weed. They do not establish any legal precedent, and they can be rescinded by the Trump administration at any time.
The FinCEN guidance creates a very different type of banking relationship for cannabis businesses as compared to most other businesses. For example, if a bank or credit union wants to do business with a brewery, they would need to make sure the brewery has all its required licenses and permits, but they would not need to make sure the brewery is keeping its beer out of the hands of kids. The bank can simply rely on the normal state and local regulators to make sure the brewery is following all relevant laws. Robert Rowe, vice president and chief legal counsel for the American Bankers Association, the largest financial trade association in the country, said this responsibility makes banks nervous.
"It flips the responsibility back on the bank, which is something a little different from most relationships," Rowe said. "One banker said the only way he could feel comfortable is if he had an employee embedded in that business 24/7."
