Cannabis banking status

How many banks and credit unions serve cannabis businesses?

FinCEN’s most recent public Marijuana Banking Update counted 816 banks and credit unions serving marijuana-related businesses as of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, down from a fiscal-year peak of 831. The same update showed that about 80% of the suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed on cannabis accounts were the routine “Marijuana Limited” type, meaning the bank saw nothing wrong beyond the fact that the customer sells marijuana.

Read that number carefully. FinCEN counts any institution that filed a marijuana SAR in the period. Data firm CRB Monitor has argued for years that the FinCEN count overstates real availability, because it sweeps in banks that filed on one or two accounts, including accounts they were closing. The practical picture: most legal states have a small group of state-chartered banks and credit unions with a formal cannabis program, and a long tail of institutions that tolerate a few accounts quietly. The large national banks still decline plant-touching customers.

What FIN-2014-G001 requires

FIN-2014-G001, issued 14 February 2014, is still the rulebook. It does not make cannabis banking legal. It tells a bank how to meet its Bank Secrecy Act duties if it chooses to serve a marijuana-related business. Two parts matter to owners and buyers.

Customer due diligence. Before opening and then on a recurring basis, the bank must verify the state license, review the license application and related documents, request available information from the state regulator, understand the normal and expected activity of the business, monitor public sources for adverse information, and refresh all of it on a schedule matched to the risk.

SAR filing on every account. Because the underlying activity is federally illegal, the bank files a SAR even when nothing looks suspicious.

SAR type	When the bank files it	What it means for you
Marijuana Limited	The business appears to comply with state law and raises no federal enforcement priority	The normal state of a healthy account; refiled on a continuing basis
Marijuana Priority	The bank believes the activity violates state law or implicates an enforcement priority	Expect questions, document requests, and possible closure
Marijuana Termination	The bank closes the account to stay compliant	Other banks may learn of it through 314(b) information sharing

The guidance also lists red flags: revenue out of line with local competitors, structured cash deposits, unexplained third-party deposits, financials that do not match account activity, owners with undisclosed criminal records, and any sign of interstate activity. Cash deposits over $10,000 still generate currency transaction reports, and marijuana businesses cannot be exempted from them.

This is why banked operators pay for compliance and why bank records are useful in a sale. A seller with years of clean Marijuana Limited history has, in effect, a third party that has been reconciling deposits against sales data the whole time. Buyers should ask for it; the due diligence checklist covers what to request.

What did Schedule III change for banking?

Very little so far. The 28 April 2026 final order moved FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana subject to a state medical marijuana license into Schedule III. Adult-use marijuana stayed in Schedule I. The order changed the tax position of medical operators, which is covered in rescheduling tax scenarios. It did not touch the Bank Secrecy Act.

Four months later, a Bradley banking update published 26 August 2026 described the result: the 2014 guidance was written for a world where all marijuana was Schedule I, FinCEN has not updated it, and compliance officers are waiting for direction before changing anything. The author’s summary was that rescheduling “was never a substitute” for legislation.

Three reasons the change is smaller than owners hoped:

1. Schedule III is still a controlled substance. Selling it outside the federal registration system is not lawful simply because the schedule number changed, so banks keep filing SARs on medical accounts.
2. Most operators are mixed. A dual-license store has Schedule III and Schedule I proceeds in the same deposit. A bank cannot separate them, so it treats the whole account under the stricter approach.
3. Examiners have not been told anything new. Until FinCEN or the prudential regulators speak, a bank that loosens its program takes the risk alone.

The practical effect on a deal: do not price in cheaper or easier banking because a target has medical revenue. The broader question of adult-use rescheduling is tracked on the rescheduling status page.

Where does the SAFE Banking Act stand?

Introduced, not enacted. S.4942, the SAFE Banking Act of 2026, was filed on 24 June 2026 by Senators Merkley, Murkowski, Daines, and Warren and referred to the Senate Banking Committee. H.R.9471 is the House companion. As of September 2026 neither has had a committee vote.

According to CRB Monitor’s summary of the bill, it would bar federal banking regulators from penalising or discouraging institutions for serving state-sanctioned cannabis businesses, protect them from forfeiture and loss of deposit insurance on that basis, require a written finding of an unsafe or unsound practice before a regulator can push an account closure, and direct updated federal guidance within 180 days of enactment.

History argues for caution. Versions of the bill passed the House seven times, and the 2023 SAFER Banking Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee 14 to 9 without ever getting a floor vote. No purchase agreement should depend on passage.

What banking status means in a sale

Banking is a diligence item and a closing item, not background.

• For sellers: a stable, disclosed account with clean history supports value. Undisclosed accounts, accounts opened under a holding company that hid the cannabis activity, or a recent Marijuana Termination are problems a buyer will find. Fix or disclose them before going to market.
• For buyers: the target’s account usually does not come with the business. Plan the new relationship early; see opening a bank account after acquisition.
• For both: payment acceptance is a separate risk from deposit banking. Card-network rules, not FinCEN, drive it. See cash handling and payment processing.
• For financing: a deposit relationship does not unlock term debt. SBA programs exclude marijuana businesses, and the realistic sources are laid out in why SBA and banks are unavailable.

This is general education, not legal or banking advice; the institution’s own compliance policy decides what it will accept.