The Medicinal Cannabis (R)evolution

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banking system, the Act would help reduce cash motivated crimes, increase efficiency of tax collections and improve financial transparency for the industry. The Association also highlighted that the Act would allow for increased oversight of cannabis related business account activities as these will now be monitored in accordance with existing BSA requirements. In November 2019, the House Judiciary Committee approved the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019 that would effectively end cannabis prohibition. The Act, once passed, would federally decriminalize cannabis by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, and would require the expungement of past federal cannabis convictions. There has been a slow change in the appetite of large financial institutions in engaging in medicinal cannabis related businesses in Canada. In its July 2019 article, Bloomberg noted the growing interest of large US Banks in offering equity investments in cannabis-related Canadian companies, including institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. This follows its October 2017 report which identified Toronto Dominion and Bank of Montreal as the lead financial institutions in providing business accounts to cannabis companies. Although promising, the offer of these accounts attract significant costs as was cited in the July 2019 article ‘ Canadian Bank’s unfair cannabis fees add to financial hurdles of lottery hopefuls ’, which highlighted the challenges faced by clients given the account monitoring and maintenance fees associated with cannabis related accounts. Whilst no doubt a significant step in the right direction for the industry, there is much more work to be done to recognise the full potential of the industry.