Cannabusiness

At Long Last: The First Cannabis Based Credit Union to Open, Source: http://blog.mpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Fourth-Corner.jpgFinding banks who will cater to cannabis businesses has been a constant obstacle for new ganjapreneurs opening up shops since states began legalizing in the U.S. But that might be about to change thanks to Alex Mason, who plans to open up the first credit union ever that caters to businesses in the cannabis industry.

Alex, an avid mountain climber, originally moved to Colorado from South Carolina in 2012 to become certified as an advanced wilderness EMT certification. “I always saw myself as an outdoorsman who would one day climb the highest mountain. Maybe that mountain was trying to figure out how to help the legal cannabis industry get banking services,” said Alex.

To help him in his endeavor, Mason enlisted the help of his family – his father Mark, mother Rhoda and sister Delaney. Alex’s father Mark Mason, an attorney, recounts, “Alex called one Sunday in February and I could sense in his voice he was really passionate about this issue. He wasn’t venting. He had an idea to solve this problem. He said, ‘Dad, the legal cannabis industry needs to start its own credit union.’ Everyone said it could not be done, but no one had actually tried.”

At Long Last: The First Cannabis Based Credit Union to Open, Source: https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQDXb5QQtTdhqKOU&w=470&h=246&url=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.rollingstone.com%2Fassets%2F2015%2Farticle%2Fmeet-the-family-behind-the-legal-weed-industrys-first-credit-union-20150108%2F179855%2Flarge_rect%2F1420651330%2F1401x788-weedfamily.jpg&cfs=1&upscale=1&sx=0&sy=18&sw=1401&sh=733

The Mason family.

“I didn’t think it was fair that my friends in Colorado’s legal cannabis industry were deprived of the one tool they really needed to succeed – access to banking,” says Alex. “They are legal. They pay taxes. They provide good jobs. They used the system to change the law, but now the law was punishing them for no reason. When I also learned that some charities helping sick children with epilepsy, people with cancer and Parkinson’s disease, could not get bank accounts, I really knew someone needed to solve this problem.”

Alex’s credit union, the Fourth Corner Credit Union, obtained approval in November from state banking regulators. The business is scheduled to open in downtown Denver sometime in January.

The U.S. Department of Treasury had released banking guidelines for state-licensed cannabis businesses in 2014, but weed entrepreneurs still faces challenges. Most banks and credit unions don’t want to bother with the risk or red tape involved in dealing with weed businesses, thanks to the federal governments continued prohibition of weed.

Alex wanted to fix this problem and started doing research. He found that under state banking laws, nearly any group sharing a common bond can form a credit union. “As I read about the common bond requirement for credit unions, I thought to myself that no industry has a stronger common bond than the legalized cannabis industry,” he said. “They have had to stick together, first to emerge, then to survive and now to grow.”