One of the biggest issues facing cannabis businesses in states with legalized marijuana is their inability to find a bank willing to handle their money. Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, many banks have refused to open accounts for businesses in the cannabis industry.
At least that's what the banks say. What they do, however, may be altogether different. The country's four biggest banks -- Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) -- all declared in 2015 that they did not provided banking services to marijuana related businesses.
According to study conducted on behalf of "American Banker," out of 84 applicants to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts filed between June 2015 and September 2016, 29 of the businesses claimed they had accounts at one of the four big banks or one of the banks' subsidiaries. Of that total, 17 had a connection to BofA.
