The CEO of the financial giant JPMorgan Chase says the company “probably would” start providing banking services to marijuana businesses if federal law changed to permit it.
As the new Congress gets to work, cannabis industry stakeholders are holding out hope for another bipartisan push to advance marijuana banking legislation. And the head of the largest U.S. bank said on an episode of the financial institution’s own “The Unshakeables” podcast that aired on Monday that the reform could change how it approaches state-licensed cannabis businesses.
Chase’s Jamie Dimon started by emphasizing that it has “not de-banked anyone because of political or religious relationships,” which he said people often allege when they’re denied services for their businesses.
To that point, Dimon proactively brought up the fact that “we don’t bank marijuana companies because there’s no federal law around it.”
Listen to the Chase CEO’s comments on marijuana banking, starting around 17:52 into the audio below:
“We simply can’t follow the law. If there was a federal law, we probably would,” he said, adding that “we do bank some crypto companies and very carefully. We are responsible in the law to fight sex trafficking, money laundering [and] tax avoidance.”
While it’s unclear whether the GOP-controlled House and Senate will move on legislation like the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act in the 119th Congress, but there’s been talk about combining the cannabis reform with cryptocurrency regulations. And President Donald Trump indicated ahead of the election that he supports cannabis industry banking access.
Dimon also weighed in on the marijuana banking bill at a Senate committee hearing in 2023, where he was asked to share his perspective on efforts to incorporate social equity provisions into the reform.
“We support the intent, but I would have to see the actual words in the actual law,” he said.
He also said in 2021 during a House committee hearing that “I don’t smoke marijuana but if you make it nationally legal, I’m not going to stop our people from banking it.”
While Chase has so far declined to engage the marijuana industry while cannabis remains a federally prohibited substance, according to Dimon, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reported last October that a record number of banks are now working with state-legal marijuana businesses amid increased pressure on Congress to enact broader protections.
Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced last month that it’s convening focus groups comprised of marijuana businesses to better understand their experiences with access to banking services under federal prohibition.
The industry remains frustrated with the lack of progress on the cannabis banking issue under the last administration. Despite repeated pledges to prioritize the reform, the SAFER Banking Act only cleared a Senate committee in September 2023 and never made it to the floor.
A Senate source told Marijuana Moment last month that Republican House and Senate leadership “openly and solely blocked” then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) attempt to include the bill in a government funding bill as the session came to a close.
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 certain Republican members of overstating support for the legislation within their caucus, while also taking a hit at Trump for doing “nothing” on cannabis reform during his time in office as he makes a policy pivot ahead of the election by coming out in support of the marijuana banking bill and federal rescheduling.
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) also recently argued in an interview with Marijuana Moment that the main barrier to getting the marijuana banking bill across the finish line is a lack of sufficient Republican support in the chamber. And he said if Trump is serious about seeing the reform he recently endorsed enacted, he needs to “bring us some Republican senators.”
Prior to becoming House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) consistently opposed cannabis reform, including on incremental issues like cannabis banking and making it easier to conduct scientific research on the plant.
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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The post Largest U.S. Bank ‘Probably Would’ Work With Marijuana Businesses If Federal Law Changes, Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Says appeared first on Marijuana Moment.
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