At a press conference announcing the new “Roadmap to Cannabis Banking & Financial Services,” Gov. Jared Polis was joined by Colorado state regulators and Rep. Ed Perlmutter, the chief sponsor of pending congressional legislation that would shield banks from being penalized solely because they accept state-legal cannabis business accounts.
For each element of the plan, the document describes the strategy, policy actions and status of those objectives.
For example, one goal is to provide “guidance for state chartered banks and credit unions providing services to cannabis-related businesses.” To that end, the state’s Division of Banking and Division of Financial Services have participated in more than a dozen roundtables with regulators from other states “to discuss the challenges and opportunities in regulating cannabis-related businesses.”
Another objective is receive “legal guidance from the [state] Attorney General regarding providing services under the Money Transmission Action and the Trust Companies Act to issue public guidance for consumers and the industry.” As of now, Colorado is “doing an assessment of the specific issues that need to be addressed” and officials hope to get that guidance by spring of this year.
The roadmap Polis presented features “seven primary areas of focus.” That includes “providing clear regulatory guidance, encouraging new and emerging technologies in the banking and financial services space, reducing barriers while upholding consumer protection guardrails, and demonstrating state support for financial businesses wishing to explore cannabis banking,” according to a press release.