CBD Bank Lists — Fact and Fiction

There are a couple of lists posted around the internet looking to be helpful to CBD merchants who want to find and keep a compliant and stable bank account.

Before you waste any more time than necessary — here are a few questions you need to be asking when you look into banks to take your CBD business.

1. Are they a community or state-chartered bank with a compliant CBD/hemp program? Any bank that is not will not provide stable banking. Even if someone at the bank opens the account, with or without full disclosure about your CBD business, it is not likely to remain open long. If you are unsure, we recommend you call corporate or other branches of the bank, and if anyone says they don’t support CBD business, believe them and take your CBD business elsewhere.
2. What types of CBD/hemp products do they support? Some banks will only support hemp farmers, manufacturers, topicals, or select products which may not include ingestible, vape products, or smokable flower. Be sure to find out if the bank will support the type of products you sell.
3. Does the bank require an in-person meeting, or is there a geographic area that they are limited to serving? Most banks will only accept clients located in counties or states where they have locations. Some banks will want to send out representatives to visit your farm, warehouse, or home office and want you to be close enough to their branch for them to do that.
4. Do you have to have a certain amount of history or volume for them to accept your business? This is a bit of a catch-22 since a business needs to have a bank account to establish a history and achieve a certain volume. Some of these banks will ask you to move your other non-CBD business to them including personal and business accounts. If this is an expectation held by the bank, you should know about this upfront.
5. Are they accepting new business, and if so, is there a waitlist to open an account? It is not uncommon for banks who operate these programs to get overwhelmed when their names are published. This results in them ceasing or limiting their acceptance of new business. The banks we work with don’t advertise, which gives us the advantage of placing our clients quickly and securely.
6. What are the bank application fees and monthly fees? These are analyzed accounts and therefore typically have a monthly compliance fee. These fees can range anywhere from $50 — $500 a month or more. Application fees vary as well and typically are non-refundable. We do charge a set-up fee and guarantee our clients a compliant account. There are no additional fees outside of the monthly fee paid to the bank. We have a negotiated rate that is typically more competitive than industry standards.
7. How complicated is the application and what are the compliance requirements? Every bank will have its own underwriting standards. Some of them will want to have an eCommerce site completed with all of the COAs provided, while others don’t. Some will want to meet you in person and others won’t. The banks we use are FDIC with a virtual set-up that supports businesses located in states where CBD is legal. The forms and supporting documents are straightforward, and our team is here to help with all questions to make sure the application is ready for bank underwriting review and approval. They are also friendly to start-ups who may not have their site set up yet but want a bank account to start paying vendors and other start-up expenses before going live.

MRB Compliance Group provides CBD and other high-risk banking, merchant processing, and compliance solutions. Learn more at www.linktr.ee/mrb_complia