Legal Clash Exposes Contradictions in Fed's Pot-Banking Rules

The Federal Reserve System has a clear stance on when banks are allowed to serve the legal-marijuana industry: it's never OK to do business with pot companies, except when it is.

That, at least, is the confusing message that emerges from comparing the Federal Reserve Board's tolerance of the practice with the hard line taken by one of the system's regional banks in a legal dispute with a Colorado credit union.

The Fed board in Washington has adopted guidelines published last year by the Justice Department and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which permit lenders to serve marijuana businesses if they obey strict rules on oversight and reporting. These guidelines, and Justice's earlier Cole Memorandum asking prosecutors not to go after legal-pot businesses, were seen as a tentative go-ahead for banking the industry.

The Fed does permit banks it supervises to serve pot companies — in some cases. As of...

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