Colorado’s Senators tell U.S. Treasury: Don’t touch marijuana banking

Both Bennet and Gardner argued the 2014 rule has been a boon for both safety and industry oversight
The Denver Post (US)
Thursday, January 11, 2017

U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner of Colorado have asked the U.S. Treasury to keep in place Obama-era rules that allow banks to serve marijuana companies — a preemptive move that follows last week’s surprise decision by the Department of Justice to rescind its policy that generally left alone from drug enforcement states that have legalized cannabis. Bennet, a Democrat, and Gardner, a Republican, sent a letter to Kenneth Blanco, who heads the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at Treasury, with the request that he retain a 2014 agency decision that allows banks and credit unions to do work with the cannabis industry “so long as they conducted due diligence such as verifying that the businesses were in compliance with state law.”