The number of banks in the United States willing to lend to hemp producers can be counted on one hand. That is about to change.
Federal and state bank regulators announced Tuesday that they were scrapping a burdensome requirement that banks said kept them away from the hemp business. Banks will no longer have to treat their hemp customers as suspicious and file reams of paperwork to anti-money-laundering authorities for each interaction.
The change could provide a major boost to a niche product that began its own legalization process last year.
“Banking has been an ongoing problem,” said Erica McBride Stark, the executive director of the National Hemp Association, a trade group for growers. “So this actually should be quite helpful.”
Read full article https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/hemp-producers-banks.html
Also at the Wall St Jnl
Banks are no longer required to file suspicious activity reports on customers who cultivate hemp, industry regulators said.
A group of financial regulators on Tuesday clarified the compliance requirements for banks whose customers produce hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant that is often used for its fiber and generally doesn’t get people high.
Suspicious activity reports identify potential criminal activity or transactions, which banks file to the U.S. Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. Until recently, hemp production largely was banned under federal law.
