Missouri’s marijuana businesses will have fewer obstacles when it comes to accessing banking, but they must now get fingerprint background checks from all their new employees and contractors, under legislation that the governor signed on Thursday.
Few banks nationwide serve cannabis businesses and their owners — or even their auxiliary partners — because most want nothing to do with a business that sells a product the federal government still considers illegal. That’s true even in states that have legalized marijuana.
The governor signed a wide-ranging public safety bill that in part allows the Department of Health and Senior Services, which oversees the state’s marijuana program, to share inspections and other information banks need to serve cannabis businesses.
Because the state agency hasn’t had this authorization previously, banks have been repeating the work DHSS has already done to meet federal financial guidelines — something not all banks are equipped for.
“In lieu of doing our own inspections,” Jim Regna, CEO and founder of Triad Bank, told lawmakers in March, “it’d be very, very helpful for us to be able to get this information from the Department of Health and Senior Services to make the program fluid and keep us in compliance with federal regulators.”
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