Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: David Migoya
Page: 13A

GOVS. INSLEE, HICKENLOOPER SEEK FED HELP

Guidance From Bank Regulators Is Overdue, They Maintain.

The governors of Colorado and Washington want federal authorities to 
keep their end of a bargain in which regulators said they would give 
guidance on banking the legal marijuana industry once law enforcement 
gave theirs.

In a letter last week to the heads of the four major banking 
regulators - the Federal Reserve, the Controller of the Currency, the 
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union 
Administration - Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Washington Gov. 
Jay Inslee asked for "follow-up inter-agency guidance" to bank 
examiners and banks and credit unions about how to do business with 
legal marijuana.

In the letter made public Tuesday, they reminded the agencies that in 
November they had promised to "consider whether guidance would be 
appropriate" once the U.S. Department of Justice and the Financial 
Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury weighed in.

That happened in February, when Justice and FinCEN, as it is called, 
said financial institutions should file enhanced "suspicious activity 
reports" that identified the sources of their marijuana-related transactions.

It also reiterated prior Justice Department guidance that listed 
eight specific areas it would insist banks ensure marijuana 
businesses are not breaching, such as sales to minors or trafficking 
across state lines.

In essence, banks would be required to file additional paperwork 
about their business relationships and received no guarantees that 
they would escape enforcement problems if a customer was later linked 
to illegal drug trade.

That caused many banks to balk at working with otherwise-legal 
marijuana businesses.

The guidance is critical, the governors wrote, especially in Colorado 
where recreational sales began Jan. 1, and in Washington, where it's 
to begin in June or July, "exposing all involved to the significant 
risks of criminal activity associated with accepting, storing and 
transporting large quantities of cash that can be ameliorated by 
access to the banking system."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom