Colorado’s Marijuana Entrepreneurs May Soon Have Their Own Credit Union

Colorado’s burgeoning population of marijuana industry has made big strides over the past year, but the state’s budding pot entrepreneurs still don’t have a place to do their banking. A new credit union is being launched to address this problem.

Marijuana may be legal in Colorado (and 22 other states), but it is still considered a controlled substance under Federal law. Financial institutions can potentially get into a lot of trouble if they handle deposits from marijuana businesses. Because of this, the newly-legal pot trade in Colorado has been an all-cash business.

This will soon change, if the charter for Fourth Corner Credit Union is allowed to open this month as planned. The CU has been approved by Colorado banking regulators, and is currently awaiting an OK from the Federal Reserve.

Once opened, Fourth Corner CU would allow marijuana businesses to do their banking openly. Many of them will finally have the chance to issue their employees proper paychecks, and accept payment cards from customers, just like other businesses.