Sponsors (4)
The bill substantially expands and clarifies banking, payment, and mortgage access for state‑sanctioned cannabis and hemp businesses and provides legal protections for financial institutions, at the tradeoff of higher compliance costs, privacy and AML supervision challenges, and lingering federal‑law conflicts that could produce legal and fiscal risks.
State‑sanctioned marijuana and hemp owners, employees, and associated service providers can get much greater access to mainstream banking and payment services (reducing cash-only operations and related safety risks).
Banks, credit unions, insurers, lenders, and other financial institutions receive statutory safe harbors and clearer protections against civil/criminal penalties for serving compliant, state‑sanctioned cannabis/hemp customers, lowering legal risk for financial services to these industries.
Borrowers whose income comes from state‑legal cannabis businesses can qualify for federally‑backed mortgages (FHA/VA/USDA/Fannie/Freddie), expanding homeownership opportunities for industry workers and owners.
Banks, insurers, lenders, regulators, and taxpayers face materially higher compliance and administrative costs (new written determinations, notices, reporting, SAR/monitoring, onboarding and verification requirements), which can raise operating costs and potentially be passed to customers.
Limiting regulator discretion around account restrictions for vague 'reputational risk' and creating safe harbors could hinder agencies' ability to steer banks away from customers tied to hard‑to‑prove illicit activity, increasing AML/supervisory challenges and potential national security/financial‑crime risks.
Persistent tension and legal uncertainty remain between federal controlled‑substances law and the bill's protections, risking uneven enforcement, litigation, and operational uncertainty for banks, borrowers, and secondary‑market entities.
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Allows and protects banking and mortgage use for state‑legal marijuana and hemp businesses, requires updated regulator guidance, and exempts compliant proceeds from certain federal money‑laundering treatment.
Official title: Create protections for financial institutions that provide financial services to State-sanctioned marijuana businesses and service providers for such businesses, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 24, 2026 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress June 24, 2026
Protects depository institutions and other financial service providers that serve state‑legal marijuana and hemp businesses from being forced by federal regulators to close or refuse accounts unless there is a written finding of unsafe or unlawful activity unrelated to reputational risk. It creates safe harbors from supervisory, criminal, civil, and forfeiture actions for banks and related actors when those businesses comply with state/tribal/local law, updates suspicious activity reporting guidance and examination procedures, requires studies/reports on access for minority/veteran/women‑owned and small marijuana/hemp businesses, and treats income from state‑legal marijuana businesses as eligible for federally backed mortgage underwriting.