September 22, 2026
About 1,000 banks and credit unions filed a cannabis-related suspicious activity report in 2024. That is roughly 11% of the 9,000 federally insured institutions in the country, and according to the Government Accountability Office, the number has barely moved since 2019. The GAO's 44-page report, Banking Services: Cannabis Businesses Face Access Challenges, was released September 8 at the request of Senators Warren, Warnock, Smith, and Fetterman.
It is the most detailed federal look at cannabis banking in 2026, and one finding sits awkwardly next to that 11%. The GAO found no indication that any financial institution has been penalized by a federal regulator for serving a state-licensed cannabis business. Eighty-nine percent of institutions are staying out over a risk that has not materialized in the twelve years since FinCEN published its guidance.
The GAO ran eight focus groups with owners and managers from 51 cannabis businesses, and nine focus groups plus 11 interviews covering 74 financial institutions. Most of the operators were banked: 43 of the 48 who answered the question had an account. The problem is the price and the stability of that account.
Owners and employees of plant-touching businesses also reported trouble getting personal accounts and mortgages.
The count of institutions filing cannabis SARs climbed every year from 2015 to 2019 and then leveled off at fewer than 1,200 filers. Several large states opened adult-use sales after 2019, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Missouri among them, and the count of banks serving the industry stayed where it was.
Courtney LaFountain, the GAO director who led the work, told Banking Dive the institutions described "uncertainty around … how the legal and regulatory environment around cannabis-related businesses is going to evolve." The ones that do serve cannabis cited community need and the business opportunity. The ones that do not cited possible sanctions and the cost of Bank Secrecy Act compliance, which requires enhanced due diligence and a SAR filing on every cannabis customer.
One week after the report came out, the Federal Reserve illustrated the point. Its proposed Third-Party Risk Management Guide for community banks, published in the Federal Register on September 15, uses cannabis as its example of a customer that needs heavier monitoring: "Where a TCBO's clients present higher risk (e.g., marijuana-related businesses), tools with more advanced capabilities may be appropriate." The guide is nonbinding and applies to Fed-supervised banks under $30 billion in assets. Comments are due November 16. No compliance officer reads that sentence and tells the board cannabis accounts have become routine.
Of the 25 institutions in the GAO's sample that do not serve cannabis, 20 said a statutory safe harbor would likely change that. Others said it would not be enough on its own.
The safe harbor bill is already filed. Sen. Jeff Merkley reintroduced the SAFE Banking Act of 2026 on June 24 with Murkowski, Warren, and Daines, and Rep. David Joyce filed the House companion the next day. On September 14, six days after the GAO report, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto signed on, bringing the list to eight senators, four from each party. The bill would bar federal regulators from penalizing a bank, or pulling its deposit insurance, for serving a state-licensed cannabis business. Earlier versions passed the House seven times between 2019 and 2022 and stalled in the Senate every time.
Schedule III does not fix this either. The April order that moved state-licensed medical marijuana to Schedule III changed the tax treatment of those businesses. Adult-use sales are still Schedule I, FinCEN's 2014 guidance is still the operating rule, and a bank still files a SAR on every cannabis customer it takes.
If you sell to dispensaries, their banking problem is part of your receivables.
Payment interruptions are structural. A store whose account is closed with little warning cannot send ACH until it finds a new bank, and seven of the GAO's eight operator groups described delays getting an account opened. Vendors that extend net terms to dispensaries are carrying a risk that has nothing to do with whether the store is profitable.
At 15% money, stores buy differently. An owner who cannot borrow at a normal rate pays for equipment out of cash flow or asks the vendor to finance it. A proposal that includes terms will get a different hearing than one that asks for the full amount up front.
The owner handles the bank. In most independent dispensaries, the person who manages the banking relationship, signs the loan, and decides which vendor gets paid first in a tight week is the owner. The store manager does not have that authority. For fintech, payments, payroll, cash logistics, and insurance vendors in particular, the owner-level contact is the only useful one.
For the 1,000 institutions that do serve the industry, the report reads as a market map. Thousands of licensed retailers are overpaying for unstable accounts, and nine out of ten competitors have decided not to show up.
This is reporting on a federal study, not financial or legal advice. Anyone structuring credit terms around a customer's banking status should talk to counsel.
How many banks serve cannabis businesses in 2026? About 1,000 banks and credit unions filed cannabis-related suspicious activity reports in 2024, the latest year in the GAO report. That is about 11% of federally insured institutions, and the figure has been flat since 2019.
Has any bank been punished for serving a cannabis business? The GAO found no indication that any financial institution has faced federal civil or criminal penalties for serving a state-licensed cannabis business.
What do dispensaries pay for banking? It varies widely. GAO focus group participants described monthly and annual account fees, two reported paying at least $100,000 a year, and most groups reported loan rates above 15%.
Would the SAFE Banking Act change this? Twenty of the 25 non-serving institutions the GAO surveyed said a federal safe harbor would likely lead them to offer cannabis accounts. The bill was reintroduced in June 2026 and has not advanced in the Senate.
Banking is one more decision that sits with the dispensary owner and nobody else in the store. See verified, owner-level dispensary contacts across six states, refreshed weekly. Free preview at holdenleads.com.
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