The SAFER Banking Act will:
Reduce cash-motivated crimes: The SAFER Banking Act will increase public safety by reducing the amount of cash on hand at legal cannabis businesses.
Discourage criminal activity: Legalized cannabis has led the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to focus on other, more-serious crimes. Access to banking will help law enforcement authorities to distinguish awful from illicit operators.
Increase anti-money-laundering compliance: The SAFER Banking Act will direct the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in coordination with federal banking agencies, to update and enhance its guidance to financial institutions about legal cannabis businesses.
Increase anti-money-laundering compliance: The SAFER Banking Act will direct the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in coordination with federal banking agencies, to update and enhance its guidance to financial institutions about legal cannabis businesses.
Cannabis Industry by The Numbers
The SAFE Banking Act has Broad Support
“The SAFER Banking Act is an urgently needed, and widely supported, bipartisan legislative solution to allow banks to handle the proceeds from state-licensed cannabis businesses and the accountants, skilled trades, landlords, law firms, and other service providers they rely upon for legal operations.”
- American Bankers Association and State Bankers Association
“The inability to access banking services impacts not only legal cannabis businesses, but also employees in the cannabis industry and secondary service providers who contract or do business with cannabis businesses.”
— The National Association of State Treasurers
“One of my main concerns when marijuana was legalized, was the fact that operators do not have access to the normal banking system to secure the proceeds from their operations. To me this meant very real increases in burglaries, thefts and robberies from these businesses due to the cash that criminals might believe to be stored on premises.”
— Mike Linder, Yellowstone County Sheriff
“If we are going to allow the sale and use of Marijuana, it only makes sense to allow the Marijuana businesses to use standard banking practices. If businesses can secure the cash they take in, the motive for robberies, burglaries, and other crime related to these businesses is reduced. The SAFER Banking Act should make the business owners, customers, and our communities safer.”
— Ed Lester, Butte-Silver Bow Sheriff
“The bipartisan SAFER Banking Act provides a critical pathway for banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions to offer broad scope banking services to legally-operating, state regulated cannabis businesses without fear of punishment by federal regulators, while also enhancing transparency by providing broader access to reliable sources of information for purposes of regulatory oversight.”
— Colorado Governor Polis, Lt. Governor Primavera, Attorney General Weiser, State Treasurer Young, and Stan Hilkey Executive Director, Colorado Department of Public Safety
“Enacting the SAFER Banking Act would also support economic development in states that have legalized cannabis, while enhancing safety for industry employees and the public alike.”
— Conference of State Bank Supervisors
“There’s almost half a million people that are employed in this space – Americans that vote, they have problems getting mortgages – these are all people that are working in legal industries.”
— James Hagedorn, CEO, Scotts Miracle-Gro
“Our banking system must be flexible enough to address the needs of businesses in the various states and territories, with state and territorial input, while protecting the interests of the federal government. This includes a banking system for marijuana-related businesses that is both responsive and effective in meeting the demands of our economy.”
— National Association of Attorney Generals
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Interstate Commerce
A new report from Grow Local demonstrates the potential risks that interstate commerce of cannabis poses to state-level progress on economic and equity policies.
Economic and Social Consequences of Interstate Commerce in Recreational-Use Cannabis reports that there are regressive and negative consequences for allowing the trade of cannabis between states that could erode state and local equity and revenue gains, including legal battles that will reverse equity efforts that were passed to benefit small entrepreneurs and minority groups.
New York has made it a priority to ensure that local businesses can compete and communities that have been disproportionately affected by cannabis criminalization can gain licenses to cultivate, process and sell cannabis products.
The SAFE Banking Act will:
Give budding local entrepreneurs access to the funds they need for their businesses to thrive and remain competitive.
Keep communities safer by no longer forcing cannabis businesses to operate largely in cash, which has made them targets for crime.
Stop banks from denying cannabis industry workers mortgages, loans and credit lines simply because of their profession.
