Federal officials have released updated data on the number of banks reporting that they work with marijuana businesses–and most financial institutions don’t seem especially concerned with their cannabis clientele.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which falls under the U.S. Department of Treasury, has been publishing data for years about suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to marijuana-related businesses. This latest batch shows relative stability in the willingness of banks to service cannabis clients even under federal prohibition.
But notably, the portion of SARs identified as “marijuana limited” stands at 80 percent. That term refers to cannabis businesses that appear to be operating in compliance with state law and meet the agency’s standard for being serviceable under existing federal guidelines, as opposed to “marijuana priority” or “marijuana termination,” which indicate potential violations or account closures.
Federal officials have released updated data on the number of banks reporting that they work with marijuana businesses–and most financial institutions don’t seem especially concerned with their cannabis clientele.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which falls under the U.S. Department of Treasury, has been publishing data for years about suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to marijuana-related businesses. This latest batch shows relative stability in the willingness of banks to service cannabis clients even under federal prohibition.
But notably, the portion of SARs identified as “marijuana limited” stands at 80 percent. That term refers to cannabis businesses that appear to be operating in compliance with state law and meet the agency’s standard for being serviceable under existing federal guidelines, as opposed to “marijuana priority” or “marijuana termination,” which indicate potential violations or account closures.
As of the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2024, FinCEN reported that there were 816 banks and credit unions serving cannabis businesses. That slightly down from its peak of 831 financial institutions in the second quarter of that same fiscal year, but it’s significantly higher than during the early years of legalization when the agency started collecting this data.
This comes amid an ongoing push from bipartisan lawmakers in Congress to enact legislation protecting banks that work with state-licensed marijuana businesses. While there’s been limited movement on that reform so far this session, the industry is holding out hope that a pending proposal to more broadly reschedule cannabis could move the needle to normalize banking for the sector.
While there have been numerous calls for FinCEN to update its decade-old guidance on cannabis banking policy amid the ever-growing state legalization movement, that hasn’t happened. But even so, financial institutions have been increasingly willing to work with the industry over recent years.
FinCEN has taken a much more detailed approach to its cannabis banking reporting in recent years compared to when it first started posting data, now providing insights about the types of SARs it has received and which states they come from. The agency’s spreadsheets now look back retroactively over a 10-year period dating back to the initial issuance of cannabis banking guidance in 2014 during the Obama administration.
State-by-state breakdowns of the data reveal wide disparities between the number of marijuana-related reports being filed by financial institutions in markets across the country.
For example, California led the pack with banks and credit unions filing 3,812 cannabis SARs in the quarter ending December 2024. Oklahoma, which has a medical marijuana system that’s allowed a massive proliferation of dispensaries, came in second with 2,735 SARs.
But as highlighted by the Canna Law Blog from the law firm Harris Sliwoski, one thing that stands out in the latest data is the portion of SARs that were categorized as “marijuana limited.”
Attorney Vince Sliwoski said that effectively means that the financial institutions are saying “Hey, FinCEN, here is a marijuana transaction!” and the agency “is doing jack-all about it.”
The state-based numbers are not a reflection of the number of banks that work with the industry, or the number of cannabis businesses within a given jurisdiction, as one bank could file multiple reports and some SARs are to note a termination of services. It is also the case that different financial instituti
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