Cannabis-focused fintech connector Green Check announced on Tuesday a new feature that enables access to banking services for licensed cannabis-related businesses (CRBs) operating within Indigenous communities.

What Happened: CRBs with tribal licenses can now onboard seamlessly onto the Green Check platform, expanding access to banking for CRBs on sovereign land. It will include regulatory rules in future updates, streamlining the onboarding process while simplifying access to essential financial services for businesses.

Why It Matters: The new feature seeks to address a gap in financial services available for the CRBs on Indigenous lands, considering state-issued license requirements have created barriers for financial institutions in serving businesses licensed by sovereign nations.

"As Green Check continues to innovate and update our program for CRBs operating on sovereign lands, our platform will be able to recognize the unique program rules and license types specific to these businesses, as opposed to typical state program rules," Stacy Litke, vice president of banking programs at Green Check, exclusively told Benzinga. "This will allow us to provide even more accurate evaluations of transaction compliance, ensuring financial institutions have what they need to properly bank these legal businesses."

Read Also: EXCLUSIVE: Green Check Verified Lands $100M In Financing Requests, Partners With Brinks, Coda Capital 

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Aligning banking services with tribal governance has the potential to reshape the relationship between financial institutions and indigenous communities. Keeping in mind that traditional financial institutions have been shying away from tribal cannabis programs due to uncertainty and unfamiliarity, Litke continued.

"By helping them navigate the tribal program particulars, while providing tribal-specific information in the Green Check platform, those financial institutions should be able to mitigate the risks of cannabis banking for those programs in the same way they would state-run programs," Litke explained. "Ideally, this allows for tribal program participants to have the same access to cannabis-friendly financial services that state-regulated operators have."

ICIA's Support

Green Check has turned to the expertise of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association (ICIA), to support this expansion. Considering the number of licensed cannabis-related businesses (CRBs)  increased by nearly 25% since January 2023, Green Check recognized the importance of collaboration with an organization within the Indigenous community, Litke continued.

"With the guidance and expertise of the ICIA, Green Check will be able to better navigate tribal government structures to understand their programs," Litke explained. "ICIA has also been working with tribal nations to help them launch cannabis programs, providing recommendations and best practices. Green Check can support ICIA’s members with access to cannabis-friendly financial services, which will help them in running their programs and businesses."

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