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#1762660 - 11/29/12 11:48 PM Washington State Legalized Marijuana
RFBanker Offline
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 73
Most folks I've spoken to thus far regarding the change in Washington's stance on marijuana are taking a wait and see approach.

I'm curious if any of your institutions are discussing this yet? We will certainly be approached at some point by a business that is a legally licensed marijuana retailer looking for banking services.

Our current policy does not permit us to bank any 'marijuana businesses'. Anyone think they might consider banking these businesses? Or is the threat of federal regulators going to keep banks from banking these retailers?

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#1762913 - 11/30/12 05:35 PM Re: Washington State Legalized Marijuana RFBanker
'Lil Freak! Offline
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Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 10,596
The psych ward
We've been approached and have turned them away. It's still not legal on a federal level and there's too much potential risk. There's also the increased monitoring of the dispensary's business. That's one of the reasons why we don't bank MSBs--too much work.
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#1766987 - 12/13/12 01:21 AM Re: Washington State Legalized Marijuana RFBanker
West Coast Comp Offline
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 350
Lost in the rain.
We aren't and don't plan too. You still have to file SAR's on the business because it is still a federal crime (subject to thresholds). I think it will be difficult to get any bank to take them on, but you never know.
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#1938247 - 07/07/14 08:45 PM Re: Washington State Legalized Marijuana RFBanker
RFBanker Offline
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 73
We've had some instances where marijuana businesses are not forthright with us regarding the business line they are in. They know they can't tell us what they do or we won't bank them.

Do you believe regulators are going to expect us to regularly search our database to look for these retailers and expel them?

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#1938895 - 07/09/14 03:50 PM Re: Washington State Legalized Marijuana RFBanker
'Lil Freak! Offline
10K Club
'Lil Freak!
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 10,596
The psych ward
IMO, regulators are probably expecting this to be incorporated into your BSA/AML program (similar to identifying MSBs). Our AML interdiction software has a key word search feature that we use for MSBs. Guess we need to amend that list....
_________________________
No, I didn't lose my mind. It got scared and ran away.

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