When I started representing cannabis businesses in 2010, the biggest epidemic in the industry next to I.R.C. 280E was the overwhelming lack of cannabis banking. This inability to access financial institutions for just depository accounts was staggering to businesses, leading to endless public safety hazards and organizational chaos. Almost 14 years later, the cannabis banking crisis has somewhat improved due to the 2014 FinCEN guidelines. But they’re not enough on either side of the aisle, and Congressional Research Services (“CRS”) echoed that point in a recent “Legal Sidebar”, detailing the myriad liabilities financial institutions to face if they want to bank cannabis businesses.
