Editor's Note: The "next hurdles" of "obtaining insurance from the National Credit Union Administration, the federal regulator of credit unions, and getting a master account from the Federal Reserve System" are not going to be easy ones to overcome. Again, the issue of marijuana being considered illegal by the federal government is significantly hampering efforts of legal marijuana businesses to operate. If this Credit Union goes through, this will be an enormous door opened for the industry. In the meantime, they might get two years of operation out of the Credit Union during the review process–and hopefully by then, some things will have changed (the re-classification of marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug and federal status on marijuana for starters, as well as revised guidelines for banks providing services to marijuana businesses).
The world's first financial institution established specifically for the marijuana industry could be open in Colorado by Jan. 1.
The Colorado Division of Financial Services late Wednesday issued The Fourth Corner Credit Union an unconditional charter to operate, the first state credit-union charter issued in nearly a decade.
The next hurdles will be obtaining insurance from the National Credit Union Administration, the federal regulator of credit unions, and getting a master account from the Federal Reserve System.
Gov. John Hickenlooper's office called the charter "the end of the line" for the state's efforts to solve the marijuana industry's nagging problem: obtaining banking services.
