The House on Thursday passed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which included the SAFE Banking Act—a bill long advocated by ABA that would enable financial institutions to serve legitimate cannabis businesses in states where it is legal. The House has passed the SAFE Banking Act several times previously.
“The SAFE Banking Act puts in place necessary protections to bring revenue from state-sanctioned cannabis businesses into the financial services mainstream,” ABA said in a letter with several other trade groups earlier this week. “Legal cannabis businesses would no longer be forced to deal exclusively in cash, which makes them vulnerable to violent robbery and puts customers, employees, and the public at risk.”