JPMorgan Chase’s CEO, J.P. Morgan Chase said that his company would “probably” begin providing banking services to cannabis businesses in the event federal law were to change to allow it.
The cannabis industry is hoping for a bipartisan push in the new Congress to move marijuana banking laws forward. The chief of the biggest U.S. financial institution said in an episode on the “The Unshakeables,” podcast of that bank that was aired Monday, that the reform might change its approach to state-licensed marijuana businesses.
Jamie Dimon of Chase began his speech by emphasizing the fact that “no one has been de-banked because of their political or religion relationships”, which is something people frequently claim when services are denied to them for their businesses.
Dimon responded by stating that, “We don’t have any marijuana-related federal laws.”
Start listening to Chase CEO comments about marijuana banking at 17:52 in the audio.
We simply cannot follow the law. He said that if there were a federal statute, “we would probably do so,” adding, “we bank crypto companies very carefully.” The law holds us responsible to combat sex slavery, money laundering [and] tax avoidance.”
It’s not clear whether or not the GOP-controlled House and Senate in the 119th Congress will pass legislation such as the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act (SAFER). However, there has been some discussion about the possibility of combining cannabis reform and cryptocurrency regulation. Donald Trump also indicated that, ahead of the 2016 election, he was in favor of cannabis industry access to banking.
Dimon spoke out on the marijuana banking reform at a Senate hearing in 2023. At the hearing, he shared his views on efforts made to include social equity measures into the reform.
He said, “We are in favor of the intention but would need to read the exact words that appear in the law.”
In 2021, he said during an hearing of a House Committee that if marijuana was made legal nationwide, he would not stop his people from banking the drug.
Although Chase declined to work with the marijuana industry until cannabis was no longer federally banned, Dimon said that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reported to Congress in October of last year a record-breaking number banks now worked with state-legal pot businesses due to increased pressure.
Last month, GAO announced that it would convene focus groups of marijuana-related businesses in order to better understand the experiences they have with banking services when federal prohibition is enforced.
Industry remains disappointed by the lack of progress made on cannabis banking under the previous administration. The SAFER Banking Act, despite repeated promises to prioritise the reforms, only passed a Senate Committee in September 2023. It never reached the Senate floor.
Last month, a Senate source informed MEDCAN24 that Republican House leadership and Senate leaders “blatantly” blocked then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), as they closed the session.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) had challenged the idea that there was enough GOP support for the SAFER Banking Act to pass on the Senate floor during the lame duck session.
Warren accused some Republican caucus members of exaggerating support within the bill, and also took a shot at Trump who did “nothing’ on cannabis reform while he was in office. Trump is now making a pivot in his policy ahead of the elections by supporting the federal rescheduling of marijuana as well as the marijuana banking legislation.
John Hickenlooper, a Democratic Senator from Colorado (CO), recently argued that the lack of Republican support is the major obstacle in getting the Marijuana Banking Bill passed. And he said if Trump is serious about seeing the reform he recently endorsed enacted, he needs to “bring us some Republican senators.”
Before becoming House Speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-LA, consistently opposed reforms to cannabis, even on minor issues such as cannabis banking, and the ease of conducting scientific research.
Meanwhile, on the one-year anniversary of a Senate committee’s passage of the SAFER Banking Act in September, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis on the economic impact of the reform, including the likely increase in federally insured deposits from cannabis businesses by billions of dollars once banks receive protections for servicing the industry.
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