This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on February 15, 2014.
Royal Oak, MI – A US Department of Treasury Memo dated February 14, 2014, has eased federal banking restrictions on medical marijuana businesses by allowing banks to apply the same Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) standards that are used for all customers. The primary focus of the BSA is to discover and report instances of illegal activity, money laundering, and funding of terrorist activities. The Treasury memo now lays out a new set of standards for reporting marijuana businesses activity under a little known but widely applied Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) to the Treasury Bureau Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen.) It makes special provisions for reporting “marijuana-related” activity, essentially allowing marijuana businesses to use the federal banking system. This could be a game changer of the long over-due banking reform. Marijuana businesses can now potentially have access to credit and credit card processing. Bank participation is voluntary but there is evidence that many large banks are interested in participating in the emerging marijuana industry.
