An attempt to ease the lack of banking services for Colorado’s cannabis industry may prove fruitless because businesses are not stepping up to form the type of financial cooperatives the state General Assembly approved last spring.
According to The Denver Post, insiders say it’s a “game of chicken” between the Federal Reserve and the marijuana industry, because neither side wants to overcommit to the idea without a better sense of how the situation will progress.
Under the legislation, which the governor signed into law four months ago, businesses interested in forming a co-op must get approval from the U.S. Federal Reserve. But so far, no one has formally applied to obtain that approval, and the state has not developed regulations on the cooperatives given the lack of interest.
Still, sources close to the situation told the Post that some entrepreneurs are at least discussing the possibility of applying.
“That’s better than I hoped for,” State Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, who sponsored the co-op bill, told The Post. “That suitors are lined up, that’s actually good news.”
