Financial Services and the Cannabis Industry – What each side needs to know
New whitepaper by industry advocates sheds light on opportunities for FinServ and cannabis

(March 1, 2021 - Texas) A recent collaboration between cannabis financial services advocacy/educator Emerging Markets Coalition (EMC) and cannabis industry compliance advisor Cann Do, LLC seeks to dispel inaccuracies and provide a better understanding to aid financial services (FS) and cannabis companies in working together. The whitepaper, Cannabis Financial Services: Opportunities and Challenges, examines the special behaviors and misinformation that challenges potentially successful partnerships within the emerging cannabis market – particularly in the area of financial services, regarding banking, payments and insurance.

According to EMC CEO & Co-Founder Kirsten Trusko, even now, however, “There is a flood of information but a desert of facts in cannabis financial services. It’s misunderstood on all sides. The best players are focused on compliance and transparency, but they speak different languages.”

Coming at the right time, the whitepaper discusses economic multiplier effects through which US consumer spending on legal cannabis is expected to generate $20.8 billion as early as 2021, for an overall economic impact of $39.6 billion, 414,000 jobs, and more than $4 billion in tax receipts – and that is without including easing of federal regulation.

Set in clear language, Cannabis Financial Services: Opportunities and Challenges offers high-level scoping and includes such risk/reward insights as

● Emerging industry: Cannabis is federally prohibited but is legal in 45 states, 4 U.S. territories, and 15 countries - and growing
● A lack of FS hampers cannabis industry logistics (in other words, there’s a lot of cash that needs a home)
● The same lack of FS hampers cannabis business strategy, which makes it hard to regulate legal business but easy to create opportunity for black-market operations.

Cannabis Financial Services: Opportunities and Challenges features Cann Do’s proprietary “Seed to CPA” methodology, combines the latest data, insights, and projections with the best business practices both banks and cannabis need to know - as well as the behaviors that are holding back financial success for both parties. Per Kelly Whyman, one of the paper’s authors and founder of Cann Do, LLC, “The cannabis industry is already required to track every plant, gram, and penny as per the intent of state regulation. Cann Do has created and implements best practices and standardized vocabulary to normalize operations and allow for business services and banking to feel confident in working in this emerging industry.”


The whitepaper is available for download here or by visiting EMCoalition.org
For more information, contact
EMC: Deneka Hobby Scott at [email protected]
About Emerging Markets Coalition (EMC)
The Emerging Markets Coalition (“EMC”) is a 501c6 not-for-profit, member-driven advocacy and educational organization for financial services in highly cash-based and under-served markets. EMC advocates and drives for the normalization, electronification, and increased accessibility to full financial services for the cannabis-related industries - enabling these businesses to operate as do other legal businesses in a growing, regulated, emerging market.

About Cann Do:
Based in Denver, Cann Do LLC has been guiding Cannabis Related Businesses through licensing, compliance, development and implementation of transparent tracking systems for all plants, grams and money since 2010 using the unique Seed to CPA methodology. Cann Do creates and implements operational standards and establishes associated electronic record-keeping practices using cloud-based software to ensure compliance, as well as, accurate inventory and financial reconciliation on a daily basis.