Ganja Biz: NCB "Not Ready to Inhale" with Cannabis Businesses

-Jamaica Observer

As local banks receive flak for not facilitating transactions in the marijuana industry, National Commercial Bank (NCB) has come out to say that it is in dialogue with ganja stakeholders — but warns that it will proceed very cautiously.

“As much as there are some legislative provisions for marijuana, we as a financial institution cannot do anything in terms of our relationship, whether it is with our existing customers or prospective customers, to put the business at risk. We are constrained,” President and CEO, Patrick Hylton told investors during the NCB Investor briefing on Friday. The event was held at the NCB Wellness Centre in Kingston.

To date, NCB is the only local bank that has openly confirmed that it could engage stakeholders in the industry. On Thursday, Member of Parliament for Trelawny Southern, Marissa Dalrymple-Philibert, called on the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) to move quickly to forge a relationship with banks to assist stakeholders in the industry who are now having difficulty conducting transactions with the institutions

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However, the banks have raised concerns about the impact the business which remains illegal at the Federal level will have on its operation.

Hylton, in responding to the media about the risks of interacting with the cannabis industry, referenced financial institutions in the United States that are also constrained by the regulations of correspondent banking, so much so that it has led to industry players dealing exclusively in cash.

The bank cautioned that its relationship with correspondent banks remains important, and until that is clarified, it will remain constrained in terms of how it can interact with the market.