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Feds: Over 100 Financial Institutions Working With Marijuana-Related Businesses


Feds: Over 100 Financial Institutions Working With Marijuana-Related BusinessesWashington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–August 14, 2014.  Over 100 US financial institutions are working directly with marijuana-related businesses in states that allow for cannabis commerce, according to public remarks made Tuesday by a US Department of Treasury representative.

Speaking this week at the 2014 Mid-Atlantic Anti-Money Laundering Conference in Washington, DC, Financial Crimes Enforcement Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery acknowledged that US financial institutions have filed over 1,000 reports with the Treasury Department in regard to servicing businesses engaged in the sale of marijuana-related goods and services. At present, “[T]here are currently 105 individual financial institutions from states in more than one third of the country engaged in banking relationships with marijuana related businesses,” she stated.

In February, the Treasury Department and the Justice Department issued a pair of memos providing limited guidance to financial institutions that wish to engage in transactions with state-authorized marijuana businesses. In July, members of the US House of Representatives voted in favor of legislation restricting the Treasury Department’s ability to take punitive actions against financial institutions that provide assistance to state-sanctioned, marijuana-businesses. To date, however, members of the US Senate have yet to take any action on the measure.

Source: http://norml.org


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