-
A federal judge is urging the parties of a closely watched pot-banking case to settle their dispute.
December 30 -
The legal status of marijuana is likely to shift dramatically next year, with around ten states considering some form of decriminalization. But banks will likely have a longer wait until the rules around serving marijuana businesses are cleared up.
December 17 -
Banking regulators have been coy about whether they approve serving marijuana businesses, but lately one regional Fed bank has taken a strong position against the practice. But there are nearly three dozen Fed-supervised banks serving pot companies one of many seeming inconsistencies in an opaque and confusing regulatory policy.
November 3
A federal judge has rebuffed a legal challenge by a credit union in Colorado that was set up to serve the marijuana industry but then denied access to the U.S. payment system.
The highly anticipated ruling is a setback for the pot industry, which has been hobbled by the unwillingness of many banks and credit unions to facilitate a business that remains illegal under federal law.
Fourth Corner Credit Union was organized in 2014 to provide banking services to state-licensed pot businesses, and was granted a state credit union charter. But the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City denied the credit union's application to open a so-called master account. Those applications are normally approved as a matter of course within a few days, and are necessary for the electronic transfer of funds.
Fourth Corner sued the Kansas City Fed, asking U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson to issue an injunction that would result in the approval of its application. At a Dec. 28 hearing in Denver, the judge
But that plea went unheeded, and on Tuesday the judge issued a ruling denying Fourth Corner's request for an injunction.
The judge did express sympathy with the plight of the marijuana industry in Colorado and elsewhere, but said that he cannot encourage financial institutions to violate federal law.
"A federal court cannot look the other way. I regard the situation as untenable and hope that it will soon be addressed and resolved by Congress," Jackson wrote.
A spokesman for the Kansas City Fed declined to comment on the ruling. Fourth Corner had no immediate comment.
"This ruling sends a message loud and clear -- Congress must act," Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, said in a press release. "There's no shortcut, there's no Band-Aid, there's no work-around to fix this industry-wide."
