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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Asia’s Economic Ties Strengthen Amid Gathering Global Storm
Tue 2, 2018
Investment fund managers reported the worst global economic outlook since December 2011 in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Monthly Fund Managers Survey last month. The shooting started in earnest in the U.S.-China trade war on September 17, when President Trump announced new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports; followed immediately by China’s retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. imports. In an interview earlier this year, Henry Kissinger said in a recent interview with The Financial Times that “we are in a very very grave period.” It looks like the world has since become graver still.
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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.