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What about refusing service to marijuana businesses? There's both a real and perceived regulatory and reputational risk in giving money to these types of compan
by ForHackernews 6y ago
What about refusing service to marijuana businesses? There's both a real and perceived regulatory and reputational risk in giving money to these types of companies.
- elliekelly 6y agoThat’s a bit different because, for now at least, a bank knowingly doing business with a marijuana company violates BSA and AML regulations. The adult entertainment industry is also frequently refused banking services by citing the same laws and regulations but those aren’t flat-out prohibited where marijuana is because it’s a criminal enterprise in the eyes of the federal government. Funds coming from adult entertainment are (1) high risk (in theory) for being proceeds from a crime (prostitution) and (2) high risk for money laundering because those businesses are often high cash or cash-only. You can see how designating a business as #1 necessarily creates the situation that gives rise to #2 and so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: the business is high risk because it’s high risk.