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Bank Regulators Getting Over Opposition to Marijuana Businesses

Banks have received tacit approval from federal regulators to continue banking relationships with pot companies.

The strained relationship between federal banking regulators and Colorado banks wanting to work with legal-marijuana businesses is easing, the first tangible signal of what many industry watchers hope is a wholesale reversal of a hard-nosed stance against the banking relationship.

 

Inspectors from federal oversight agencies have quietly told bankers during recent regulatory examinations that they could continue working with pot-related clients as long as the banks closely monitor that relationship, according to interviews with bank attorneys and other industry insiders.

Banks that closely follow federal law enforcement guidelines issued in February on maintaining marijuana business accounts are now seeing examiners "passively approve" of them.

That's a dramatic shift from past reviews in which bankers have said ended with them being discreetly told to ditch the drug-monied accounts or face unmentioned sanctions.

 

Daniel Luzer is GOVERNING's news editor.
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