Cannabis-Friendly Credit Union – Cannabis News, Lifestyle

Cannabis-friendly credit unions should be a redundant statement in Canada. Finally, cannabis is legal in Canada. British Columbia contributes over US$2 billion annually. All financial institutions, whether large banks or smaller credit unions, should be cannabis-friendly. Unfortunately this is not the case. Because cannabis is illegal in the US, Canadian banks and major credit unions are not getting involved. “They’re just not ready,” says Mike Schilling, president and CEO of Community Savings Credit Union.

Community Savings, a medium-sized credit union based in BC, has worked with BC’s cannabis community “since the beginning, even before legalization.” “As you know,” says Mike, “there’s a lot of word of mouth in the industry, it’s kind of a family, people say nice things about us, and now we’re the largest provider of retail cannabis banking services in the province and that keeps growing.”

18/6 account

On April 20, 2022, the cannabis-friendly credit union launched a new service called the 18/6 account. The name refers to a cannabis grow light cycle (lights are on 18 hours, off 6 hours). “We’re trying to get a little bit into cannabis culture and have a little fun with it,” says Mike. “But there is also a serious side to our mission, because we encounter too many companies in the industry that are really being exploited. They do all the hard work and then the financial institutions charge thousands and thousands of dollars just to have a simple account.”

The 18/6 account offers a low monthly fee and line of credit. And not just for smaller growers and retailers. Even some of the larger producers are struggling to get lines of credit from traditional institutions.

“We’re approached by cannabis companies that are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and their bank doesn’t issue them credit cards,” says Mike. “It is ridiculous.”

“We approach cannabis lending the way we do any business, so that doesn’t mean we say yes to everyone because we’re a professional lender. We conduct our reviews, but we don’t care if you’re a cannabis company or another business, we take the same approach. And we give you the funding you need to grow and support what you do.”

Cannabis-friendly credit union for the people

There is a stigma surrounding cannabis that shouldn’t exist. “It’s not just true of financial services,” says Mike, “it’s true of all professional services…people who kind of don’t understand the industry, who regulate us, who assume we’re banking biker gangs here, right? I try to explain to them that these aren’t really the people we’re dealing with.”

Community Savings is a cannabis-friendly credit union that has been in business for a long time. “It’s a way we really bring the industry together,” says Mike. “What we’re seeing are incredibly hardworking, incredibly passionate people who are putting their heart and soul into this business that they really believe in. They serve their community and we really enjoy working with people like that.”