Why one bank takes marijuana dispensaries’ cash; Adam Trenk, Rose Law Group partner and cannabis department director, weighs in

By Andy Blye | Phoenix Business Journal

Pawn shops, casinos and money services firms are all cash-intensive businesses. Reliance on cash means that banks working with these customers have to put more resources toward regulatory compliance, and thus, some institutions opt out of working with them.

The same goes for marijuana dispensaries; the volume of cash and the fact that the substance is still illegal at the federal level mean that most banks in Arizona avoid them as customers.

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“The only impediment to the legal cannabis/marijuana industry becoming normalized by our markets is its lack of access to banking. Republics Bank is one of a few state chartered banks in Arizona to help break down that barrier. While we wait for cannabis to be removed from the federal governments list of controlled substances we will likely see more of this welcomed access to necessary financial services that will help grow and stabilize the industry.”

Adam Trenk, Rose Law Group Partner, Director of Cannabis, Hemp and Equine Departments