The cannabis industry is maturing, and many cannabis businesses are starting to expect more from their banks, credit unions, and other financial services providers. “420 Friendly Banks” that merely accept cannabis deposits are no longer enough to serve the industry’s sophisticated and growing needs for financial tools and partners. The [...]
New year, new you, new CannFi report! 2022 is shaping up to be another year of incremental progress when it comes to cannabis normalization and reform. So, what’s good in the world of cannabis banking this month? WSJ Covers the Challenges of Cannabis Banking Having the right [...]
Not a 404 Error: Understanding SOX 404, How it Works, and How it Affects Your Cannabis Business As operators tread through the miles of red tape and perilous regulatory landscapes that make up the U.S. cannabis industry, many confront questions and concerns as they plot their futures, especially when it comes to putting together [...]
In Part 1 of this primer on cybersecurity for the cannabis industry, we talked about what's at stake for operators if they become victims of a cyber attack. We discussed the most popular types of threats and how to identify them. Additionally, we covered a real example of a cultivator that lost thousands [...]
Entrepreneurs and investors are jumping head first into the red-hot cannabis market, lured by the potential for massive growth and profits. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have also taken notice of the opportunity and are specifically targeting cannabis operators. Sometimes these attacks are sophisticated, but often, all that is needed to protect a business is proper [...]
Medical marijuana delivery in Missouri is legal and convenient for patients, except for one major snag: state law requires delivery transactions to be prepaid BEFORE they can leave the dispensary. For an underbanked industry like cannabis, this presents a significant hurdle, but one that’s now been conquered by Abaca, the complete cannabis financial [...]
Abaca started in 2017 as an idea on a whiteboard with a simple goal: to solve cannabis banking and normalize financial services for the cannabis industry. Recently, we surpassed a major milestone: $1 billion in compliant cannabis transactions processed. That’s a lot of happy patients, customers, operators and suppliers. As we reflect on [...]
CHICAGO, Aug. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial services company Abaca announces its social equity grant for Illinois cannabis business license-holders. Under Abaca's Social Equity Grant Program, social equity applicants who have received Illinois cannabis business licenses can qualify for a grant of up to $12,000, which effectively eliminates monthly service fees for cannabis banking [...]
Normalization of retail payments and merchant services will open the door to a new era of cannabis e-commerce. When consumers can use a credit card to order their cannabis delivery or pickup online sales will multiply. A major driver of this shift will be consumers having more convenient payment options at checkout and also [...]
This Earth Day we are reflecting on sustainability in financial services. While many advancements -- specifically the adoption of electronic payments -- have been made in financial services, the cannabis industry continues to be plagued by high cash volumes due to regulations. The first factor impacting sustainability is the material that goes into manufacturing [...]
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