Democracy Dies in Darkness
Business

Banks want a hit of the marijuana business. Will they get to partake?

A House subcommittee takes up the SAFE Banking Act, which would allow banks to provide services to legal pot businesses.

By
February 13, 2019 at 6:27 p.m. EST
A bud tender helps customers recently at Serra, a dispensary in Portland, Ore. A subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives took up a bill that would protect banks and their employees doing business with legal cannabis enterprises. (Richard Vogel/AP)

The U.S. banking industry has a marijuana problem.

Cannabis is legal in some form in more than two dozen states. But it is still illegal on the federal level, leaving most risk-averse banks too scared to do business with legal marijuana businesses for fear of angering their regulators.

The banking industry, having spotted a potentially lucrative untapped market, has pushed lawmakers for years to tackle the issue, to no avail. They may finally be getting somewhere.