Bank Lobby Urges Congress to Pass Cannabis Banking Bill

The largest lobbying group for U.S. banks is now formally pressing Congress to pass cannabis banking legislation, a sign that the effort to move state-legal marijuana money into the regulated financial system has a heavyweight backer outside the cannabis industry itself.

The American Bankers Association, which represents banks of every size, sent a letter dated July 1, 2026 to House and Senate leaders urging “prompt consideration” and “timely passage” of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, better known as the SAFE Banking Act. It went to Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the minority leaders in both chambers, and the leaders of the two committees that would take up the bill. Signed by ABA chief policy officer Naomi Camper, the letter argues that the measure would pull cannabis proceeds out of a cash economy and into supervised accounts, reducing the public-safety and illicit-finance risks that come with businesses running on cash.

That argument matters because of where it comes from. Cannabis operators and their trade groups have lobbied for banking access for years. A formal push from the association that speaks for the country’s banks signals the reform now has backing from the institutions that would actually have to open the accounts.

What the bill would — and wouldn’t — do

The SAFE Banking Act was reintroduced in late June 2026 by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) in a coordinated bicameral filing. It would bar federal banking regulators from penalizing banks and credit unions that serve cannabis businesses operating legally under state law. Regulators could not threaten a bank’s deposit insurance, order it to close accounts without cause, or discourage it from lending to a licensed operator. The protections extend to the accountants, landlords, law firms and other service providers cannabis companies depend on, as well as to community development and minority-owned financial institutions.

What the bill would not do is just as important. It would not legalize marijuana at the federal level, and it would not lift banks’ anti-money-laundering duties. Institutions would still have to vet their customers and file suspicious-activity reports on certain cannabis transactions. It is also, for now, a bill that has been introduced rather than enacted, a distinction that has repeatedly separated cannabis banking hope from reality.

For operators, that gap is the story. The April 2026 rescheduling of medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III did not create a banking safe harbor, which is why the legislation is still needed after that federal shift. Most operators remain shut out of ordinary financial services — business loans, payment processing, even basic checking — and move large volumes of cash as a result. State-licensed cannabis businesses “employ thousands of Americans and generate significant tax revenue, yet many remain effectively shut out of the traditional banking system,” Joyce said when he and House colleagues filed the companion bill.

Why the banking industry is pushing now

The timing tracks two federal shifts the ABA flagged directly. Alongside the medical-marijuana rescheduling, the Justice Department opened a separate process to reconsider the scheduling of non-medical marijuana. And beginning in November 2026, many hemp-derived CBD products sold across the country will be regulated as marijuana under federal law, after Congress closed the so-called hemp loophole and reclassified a large part of the roughly $28 billion hemp industry.

The association’s point is that both changes will move more product, and more state-licensed money, into a legal gray zone, swelling the volume of cash the banking system now keeps at arm’s length. Bringing those funds into regulated accounts, it argues, would give regulators and law enforcement more visibility into transactions that currently happen off the books.

The odds haven’t changed much

The track record is sobering. The House passed versions of the SAFE Banking Act seven times between 2019 and 2022, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced a version in 2023, but it never reached a Senate floor vote and died at the end of the last Congress. The Senate has never passed the bill.

The current lineup cuts both ways. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Banking Committee and has been skeptical of the reform before, is among the letter’s recipients. So is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who is both the committee’s ranking member and a cosponsor of the Senate bill, giving the measure a backer at the top of the panel that would have to move it.

For cannabis businesses, the practical takeaway is unchanged: a bill in committee is not a banking relationship. Operators who have built accounts with the regional banks and credit unions already willing to serve the industry under current federal guidance have little reason to change course while the bill works through a Congress that has stalled it before.