Colorado-based Bank Plans to Go National

Since cannabis businesses first became a legal reality, they have struggled with the concept of legal banking. One credit union in Colorado caters to cannabis, and it plans to take its business model national.

According to Marijuana Business Daily, Partner Colorado Credit Union has a plan to expand to six states by the end of 2017 and into 20 by 2018. The company currently has about $80 million worth of cannabis money in its home state, and is now ready to take on bigger volumes. Partner Colorado Credit Union thinks it has the answers for the nation’s cannabis crisis. The plan is to conduct business by using Safe Harbor Services, which is a tool for banking that allows money to be transferred safely. Partner believes this would be a way to get around the fact that banks can be persecuted.

This goal isn’t without obstacles, as the federally illegal state of cannabis in the United States is still creating a wall. “The 900-pound elephant is that without a change in federal law, these guidelines do not truly provide safe harbor against prosecution,” said Mark Goldfogela, vice president of Fourth Corner Credit Union, according to Marijuana Business Daily.

But CEO Sundie Seefried hopes to keep the momentum growing in support of local cannabis businesses in Colorado and beyond. “We’ll focus on getting one up and running in each state and giving them exclusive rights in that state,” Seefried said.

In some countries, such as Uruguay, entire industries are opting to go bank-free and cash-only in order to resist hurdles. Even though the whole country has legalized in the case of Uruguay, international banking laws don’t recognize cannabis, so they would still suffer. California was also thinking of operating their own banking system, but federal regulations would still be a factor.

Whether this works or not is yet to be determined, but one thing is clear. The cannabis industry is growing by leaps and bounds, and a banking system is needed to regulate the large amounts of cash. Partner Colorado Credit Union hopes to offer just that system.