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While it's been a month since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he was rescinding an Obama-era order called the Cole Memo that allowed legal marijuana states to flourish, there has been little to no communication on what that might mean, especially for those Maine CUs that do serve marijuana-based businesses. However, recently, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offered some insights into how the Treasury Department may respond to the growing area of marijuana banking.
In a speech before the House Financial Services Committee, Mnuchin confirmed that he does not want to go back to the days where legal marijuana businesses were having to carry around "bags of cash" to pay their employees, The Financial Regulatory Report reported. Mnuchin noted with respect to the continued validity of the 2014 FinCEN guidance: "We are reviewing it, but the intent is not to take it down without a replacement that can deal with the current situation. We want to make sure that we can collect our necessary taxes and other things."
"Secretary Mnuchin's remarks strongly suggest that the 2014 FinCEN guidance is still effective, and that the Treasury Department is working diligently to craft a new replacement policy that will provide greater clarity for the industry," the Financial Regulatory Report stated.
While Attorney General Sessions' announcement has created uncertainty, the Maine CUs who are serving marijuana-based businesses are still doing so. "cPort Credit Union is aware of the added uncertainty created by Attorney General Sessions’ memorandum rescinding the Cole Memorandum and is considering and monitoring this development closely. At the present time, we have not changed our policy regarding our medical marijuana accounts and continue to provide deposit services for these members," said Gene Ardito, President/CEO of cPort CU.
Five County CU's Compliance and BSA Officer, Alex Davis, added, "The Cole Memo and the 2014 FinCen Guidance were far from perfect, but at least they laid out a path for how we should address marijuana businesses and/or suspected marijuana businesses here in Maine. As of last week, those guidelines are either gone or severely undermined, and the new policy of prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis regrettably fails to offer any replacement. The reality of the market is that every financial institution in Maine, and any other state with any level of marijuana legalization, has at least a few marijuana accounts, probably more than a few, whether they know it or not. We need clear rules and guidance, preferably from Congress, but failing that, from the DoJ, or even the state of Maine."