NCIA exec. dir.:
“This ruling sends a message loud and clear – Congress must act.”

Washington, DC – A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Fourth Corner Credit Union against the Federal Reserve in hopes of providing banking services to the legal cannabis industry. In his ruling, Judge R. Brooke Jackson said Congress must provide the answer, stating, “I regard the [cannabis banking] situation as untenable and hope that it will soon be addressed and resolved by Congress.”

Fourth Corner is a credit union chartered by the State of Colorado and designed to serve legitimate cannabis businesses, but the Federal Reserve had denied its request for a master account, which would have allowed them to provide checking services to its members.

“This ruling sends a message loud and clear – Congress must act,” said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA). “There’s no shortcut, there’s no band-aid, there’s no work-around to fix this industry-wide.

“Forcing cannabis businesses to operate without banking access is a crisis, affecting public safety, law-abiding businesses, and the state officials in charge of regulating them. It’s time for Congress to do its job and fix the problem.”

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