Crypto Currency and Cannabis Banking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ls-dNlpYdI Tue 4, 2021
WeedWeek quotes Nathaniel Gurien, CEO of Fincann, on the rise of cryptocurrency in the cannabis banking world what what it could mean for businesses and the industry as congress has yet to come to a consensus on banking legislation.
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Learn about cannabis banking at Canna World Expo 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ls-dNlpYdI Wed 21, 2021
Fincann presents at Canna World Expo 2021. Watch the presentation for free on the Canna World Expo website.
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Fincann on The Budding Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ls-dNlpYdI Wed 21, 2021
Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien appears on Episode 140 of The Budding Report podcast.
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MJBizDaily: Firms could face higher taxes via Biden spending plan and state rules
https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-firms-could-face-higher-taxes-via-biden-spending-plan-state-rules/ Wed 21, 2021
New York, “as the financial capital of the world,” would put pressure on lawmakers to push for cannabis banking reform and, more importantly, federal legalization.
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Cannabis Operators, Insiders, and Experts Discuss New York’s Cannabis Legalization
Tue 20, 2021
“Chasing cannabis licenses may be ‘fools gold’… It might be wiser to apply current skills and experience… to launch a niche business,” Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien shared with Cannabis Law Report.
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Fincann in MarketWatch: “The possibilities are endless”
Thu 1, 2021
Nathaniel Gurien, chief executive of Fincann, an advisory and consulting firm that specializes in cannabis banking and payment systems, said minority investors should think more broadly about how to access the sector.
“Chasing cannabis licenses may be ‘fool’s gold’ especially for minority equity candidates once federal legalization permits every corner convenience store to sell pre-rolls,” he said. “It might be wiser to apply current skills [and] experience combined with newly acquired skills [and] capital provided by equity programs to launch a niche business, [for example] tourism, professional services, equipment, horticulture — the possibilities are endless, barriers to entry are low, and prospects for long-term prosperity are greater.”
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Weed Professionals Give Mixed Reception To Reintroduction Of Cannabis Banking Bill In Congress
https://www.forbes.com/sites/irisdorbian/2021/03/22/weed-professionals-give-mixed-reception-to-reintroduction-of-pot-banking-bill-in-congress/?sh=5126c68fd1f2 Mon 22, 2021
Nathaniel Gurien, CEO of Fincann, a provider of payment solutions for the cannabis industry, feels the bill is nothing more than a superficial band aid to a larger problem, namely the federal illegality of the plant.
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Fincann featured in Ganjapreneur
Thu 11, 2021
Ganjapreneur explains how and why Fincann came to be, citing the banking authority’s success in obtaining sustainable banking and merchant processing for cannabis industry clients.
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Fincann featured in AMLology
Wed 3, 2021
CEO Nathaniel Gurien enumerates the current trends in cannabis banking and merchant payment solutions in the United States.
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Fincann CEO: More banks will “put their toe in the water” in 2021
Mon 22, 2021
Head to page 83 to read Nathaniel’s insight into what’s in store for B2B cannabis businesses and banking in 2021.
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Fincann featured in MG Retailer Magazine
Thu 4, 2021
CEO Nathaniel Gurien pens an op-ed about the “big shakeup” the cannabis industry can expect in the banking sector in 2021.
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Fincann launches the industry’s first and only cannabis-friendly bank counter
Thu 4, 2021
As the nation’s Cannabis Banking Authority™, Fincann provides all stakeholders with free, current, expert, and factual guidance pertaining to all industry sectors. View the cannabis bank counter.
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Fincann featured in Green Sheet January 2021 issue
Mon 1, 2021
Learn more about Fincann and the Cannabis Banking Financial Network in this financial industry publication’s featured company profile.
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Fincann shares Biden administration cannabis banking predictions
Wed 20, 2021
Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien shares his insights with The GrowthOp.
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With Biden in… progress on cannabis seems imminent
Tue 19, 2021
Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien tells NJ Cannabis Insider readers to “faster [their] seatbelts,” with federal legalization moves potentially on the way. Visit the Fincann blog for more insights on the Biden administration and cannabis.
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5 Predictions for the 2021 Cannabis Industry
Wed 13, 2021
Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien tells Benzinga that he predicts the SAFE Banking Act to pass in 2021, but that it will have little impact on the cannabis industry.
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MORE Act Passes in the House
Wed 9, 2020
“Passage of the MORE Act will help more [banks] feel that perhaps [cannabis is] trend[ing] toward mainstream acceptance and therefore expand access to banking,” said Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien.
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Anti-pot laws go up in smoke: Five more states legalize cannabis, boosting investors’ prospects
Mon 7, 2020
“The American electorate has once again demonstrated the growing mainstream acceptance of legal medical and adult-use [cannabis] across the political spectrum,” said Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien.
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Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien pens op-ed for The Marijuana Times
Mon 9, 2020
The Marijuana Times published an op-ed penned by Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien about pervasive misinformation about cannabis banking: “The nub of largely mainstream conservative bankers’ resistance to supporting our industry lies in their fundamental belief in the prevailing, demonizing propaganda.”
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New Jersey is legalizing marijuana. Does that put pressure on New York?
Sun 8, 2020
“Now with COVID and the additional financial pressure New York State is feeling, there is an even greater imperative for all stakeholders in New York to come to terms,” Fincann CEO Nathaniel Gurien shared with NY
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Recreational Marijuana Legalized by New Jersey Voters
Wed 4, 2020
Even getting a business checking account can be a high hurdle for most marijuana entrepreneurs, forcing many to rely primarily on cash transactions, according to Nathaniel Gurien, the chief executive of Fincann.
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Even Louisiana’s Top Banking Regulator Wants “Safe Harbor” For Cannabis Banking
Wed 1, 2019
GB Sciences, which LSU selected as its exclusive grower of medical marijuana… hired a company, Fincann, whose sole purpose is to find banks for marijuana companies.
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Marijuana industry banking woes: Here’s how some states are struggling to address them
Wed 1, 2019
“The bottom line is that compliant cannabis banking requires full transparent supervision by a regulated financial institution,” said Nathaniel Gurien, founder and CEO of Fincann, a Manhattan-based payment solutions firm. “No solution is sustainable otherwise.”
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Congress Weighs New Banking Laws That Could Light Up the Pot Business
Wed 1, 2019
Unlike most fledgling, growing industries, the pot business remains handcuffed when it comes to accessing everything from business loans to payroll services to electronic payment methods (including credit cards, which aren’t accepted at most dispensaries).
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Congress Weighs New Banking Laws That Could Light Up The Pot Business
Mon 22, 2019
[FINCANN CEO Nathaniel] Gurien [believes that] the law won’t dispel the stigma that the conservative-leaning, risk-minded boards of many financial institutions have toward the topic of marijuana. The only measure that could prompt such a shift in thinking, he says, is “de-scheduling cannabis as a Schedule I drug.”
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Hemp Companies Left Looking For Bank Alternatives
Mon 22, 2019
“This was the first time the CBD and hemp industry could look forward to stable merchant processing services, and (Elavon’s) decision to exit means we could go back to some of the back door, tortured, overpriced solutions that the industry had been laboring under.”
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Cannabis Cash Concerns
Tue 22, 2019
The [banking] issue stems from reluctance on the part of financial institutions to work with businesses related to marijuana sales in any way—even when those businesses are located in states that have legalized cannabis.
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Understanding the Business of Medical Marijuana
Tue 20, 2018
Medical marijuana allows Ajay Suman, MD’s cancer patients a safer alternative to opioids for chronic pain. It can be an effective treatment for his terminally ill patients, says Suman, a New York-based anesthesiologist and a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, who is qualified to evaluate patients in New York State who want to use marijuana for medical reasons.
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Risk remains a four-letter word for banks when it comes to cannabis, even though there is nothing to fear
Tue 13, 2018
There is still a great deal of misinformation and a lack of information surrounding cannabis banking and the related banking product of MasterCard/Visa merchant processing.
Most glaring is the misinformation that the federal government is the primary obstacle to banks providing even the most basic service of a business checking account for an MRB, or marijuana-related business.
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FINCANN Wants to Solve the Cannabis Banking Problem
Tue 13, 2018
FINCANN Chief Executive Officer Nathaniel Gurien said he’s always been a risk-taker. At 65, he’s spent most of his career in global consumer electronics commerce. Although the marketplace was hyper-competitive, he succeeded by taking advantage of differences in pricing, distribution, and banking practices in international markets. He also became an active member of national banking compliance and anti-money-laundering trade associations.
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Marijuana Banking: Front Line Perspectives for AML Professionals
Thu 4, 2018
It is understandable and reasonable for many folks to remain skeptical of recent claims of medical efficacy and harmless non-consequential recreational use of cannabis, given decades of pervasive messaging to the contrary. However, it is vital for today’s AML and banking professionals to understand the truth, to take timely advantage of an opportunity, and to tackle a looming and severe danger both to our communities and our financial system.
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Understanding Payment Processing in the Cannabis Industry
Tue 2, 2018
Because the cannabis industry in the United States is still technically illegal on the federal level, many banks are hesitant to accept or handle the money that is involved in this “high-risk” trade. This creates some complex problems for companies which are operating completely within regulatory guidelines; because marijuana-related businesses (MRBs) are forced to run cash-only businesses, this makes them huge targets for crime and creates frustrating, and often confusing, accounting hurdles to jump.
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FINCANN Has A Solution To Cannabis Banking
Tue 2, 2018
If you haven’t heard about the issues surrounding cannabis banking, then it’s time to get familiar. Despite being legal in some form in over 25 states, federal law still makes it hard for banks to accept money from the industry. According to federal law Marijuana is still a schedule I prohibited drug. Other drugs in this category are heroin, cocaine and LSD. Any federal bank that does business with cannabis growers, distributors or dispensaries are subject to penalization for money laundering under federal law. Taxes surrounding cannabis sales and cannabis banking even have to be paid in cash, making it hard for businesses to do their taxes correctly.
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Make Millions Thanks to California’s Cannabis Explosion
Tue 2, 2018
$20.2 billion is expected to pour into California’s cannabis market in just the first year the state goes fully legal – and investors who know how to get in on the ground floor could see a small stake turn into a million-dollar windfall. We’ve narrowed the pool to three tiny companies expected to deliver once-in-a-lifetime fortunes. But once these stocks go from $1 to $10, to $20, or more… you may never see a chance like this again.
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Shop Talk: The financial-service challenges faced by cannabis-related businesses
Tue 2, 2018
Even as Congress is expected to soon legalize hemp as a crop — with implications for activities ranging from medical treatments and construction materials to fabrics and investment opportunities — cannabis businesses have effectively been shut out of the banking business, leaving them with piles of cash and few effective ways to secure and manage it. Our guest, Nathaniel Gurien, founder of FINCANN, connects pot-related business with the so-called Cannabis Banking Financial Network, joins us to discuss those issues.
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Effects of the Black Market on the Legal Cannabis Industry
Tue 2, 2018
Legalization was supposed to end cannabis-related organized crime. However, despite recreational and medical legalization spreading like wild fire across North America and Europe, the black market persists just the same as it ever has. And it will continue to. Price is the biggest reason for that. It’s easy to believe that celebrity branded, high quality marijuana is a no brainier, however the majority of consumers aren’t cannabis connoisseurs and simply want the most bang for their buck. If the government set prices are too high, there’s not much of a contest. People will stick with the black market.
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Pot industry to Sessions: Really? Calm (mostly) prevails after federal storm
Tue 2, 2018
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ action to rescind policies that let states’ marijuana industries proceed without federal intervention landed with a thud in the industry in Washington state and elsewhere.
Sessions’ new stance will let federal prosecutors decide how aggressively to enforce federal law prohibiting it, giving added uncertainty to an industry long used to it.
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Legal pot’s high is thwarted by leery bankers
Tue 2, 2018
Reggae star Peter Tosh’s 1975 pro-marijuana anthem called to “legalize it, don’t criticize it.” But an extremely critical edict from the Trump administration threatens to send the legalization trend up in smoke, starting with pot purveyors’ ability to open bank accounts.
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WIRE: Jeff Sessions moves to rescind cole memo, prosecute legal cannabis
Tue 2, 2018
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice has rescinded the “Cole Memo” and two additional memos related to marijuana enforcement policy. These memos, issued in 2013 and 2014, have helped to clarify the Department’s response to state-legal cannabis activity.
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10 Cannabis CEOs Give Us Their Take on Jeff Sessions’ Policy Decision
Tue 2, 2018
As many readers may have already heard, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, the Obama-era policy that gave protection from federal prosecution for the state-sanctioned consumption, cultivation, and sale of cannabis.
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Why Jeff Sessions’ New War on Marijuana Hasn’t Frightened Investors or Cannabis Entrepreneurs
Tue 2, 2018
Someone’s always gotta’ try and ruin a good party. Last week it was Jeff Sessions.
Californian’s were granted the long-awaited right to possess cannabis for both medical and now recreational purposes and the world watched vicariously for a whole four days until someone knocked over the punchbowl.
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DOJ guidelines threaten legal cannabis trade
Tue 2, 2018
Jan. 4, 2018, memo by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions gives law enforcement the right to prosecute marijuana-related activities, even in states that have legalized these practices. Sessions maintains marijuana cultivation, distribution, possession and use have always been illegal, despite the previous administration’s policy against prioritizing prosecution of several types of cannabis-related activities in states that have legalized it.
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12 Quotes from Cannabis Experts on Jeff Sessions Rescinding the Cole Memo
Tue 2, 2018
If you didn’t know by now, Jeff Sessions is moving to rescind the Cole Memo. The Cole Memo was the memo which allowed states to implement their own cannabis laws without federal interference. By terminating this, he terminates the US policy that lets the legal pot flourish.
Below is a collection of quotes on the topic from a range of cannabis experts in the industry.
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$12B Up For Grabs As California And Canada Legalize Cannabis – The Green Rush Is On
Tue 2, 2018
Traditional investment banking and capital markets have been closed to cannabis companies, but with federal legalization in Canada, Nathaniel Gurien, CEO of FINCANN, predicts “a ‘gold-rush’ of access to capital and financing for cannabis enterprises, including “government partnership with private enterprise and banking.”
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Paying with cards at marijuana dispensaries? It’s complicated
Tue 2, 2018
Marijuana may be legal in your state. Does that mean you can pay for it with a credit card?
Confoundingly, there are two answers to this question. The first one is, maybe – some marijuana dispensaries claim to accept credit cards.
The second answer, though, contradicts the first one. According to numerous experts, the major credit card networks do not allow merchants to use their cards for marijuana purchases – they do not even have a merchant code for such purposes – and will shut down any account they find out of compliance with this policy.
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Here’s Why Cannabis Experts Are So Bullish on Blockchain Technology
Tue 2, 2018
Money Morning Director of Technology & Venture Capital Research Michael Robinson made four big cannabis predictions for 2018, including the role cryptocurrencies will play in the cannabis industry…
“I’m predicting that 2018 will see a major convergence of cryptocurrencies and legal cannabis. We’re just starting to see the first glimmers of this happening now,” Robinson told us on Oct. 3, 2017.
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Ep.52 – Nathaniel Gurien ~ How to Successfully Bank Your Cannabis Industry Business
Tue 2, 2018
Episode 52 of the Rootd podcast welcomes in Nathaniel Gurien, CEO of FinCann, a cannabis banking financial network who is providing cannabis-related businesses and ancillary companies with bulletproof bank accounts and merchant processing services.
Nathaniel is an expert at cannabis banking and shares some of the top misconceptions about banking in the industry. He explains how to operate a successful bank relationship and how little danger there actually is for the big banks if they wanted to get involved with the industry.
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O. Miles Pollard Jr., mortgage banker, board member, real estate developer, remembered for connecting with people
Tue 2, 2018
Local business leaders remembered O. Miles Pollard Jr. Monday as an entrepreneur who made connections with people all over the world.
“If you didn’t like him, there was something wrong with you,” said Jake Netterville, the former managing director of Postlethwaite & Netterville, a Baton Rouge accounting firm. “He was a fascinating person who led a charmed life.”
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Nathaniel Gurien Interview: Bringing Banking and Payment Solutions to the Cannabis Industry
Tue 2, 2018
Nathaniel Gurien is the CEO of FINCANN, a company bringing compliant banking and payment solutions to the legal cannabis industry.
We recently invited Nathaniel for a Q&A session to talk about his background and his company FINCANN.
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This Is the Most Profitable Point in the History of the $10 Billion Marijuana Industry
Fri 28, 2018
Ahead of the national holiday for cannabis enthusiasts, April 20, we wanted cannabis investors to know about the history of marijuana.
That’s because we’re entering the most profitable point in the controversial plant’s history, and knowing the history of the cannabis industry means you know which companies are developing truly innovative solutions.