Nearly a year after Colorado's first legal marijuana shops opened, the thriving industry's biggest problem is deciding what to do with all of its cash. Now, the state banking commission believes it has found a way to free pot entrepreneurs from the regulatory haze between federal banking laws, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) policy, and the state's right to experiment with legalization.



The nation's first bank for marijuana pushers, growers, and investors will open in January after Colorado's banking regulators approved a charter for The Fourth Corner Credit Union.



The first-of-its-kind bank will allow state business owners to move away from relying on cash for every transaction. Business has been very good for marijuana sellers since the state's carefully designed legalization regime came online in early 2014, but traditional banks have refused to do business with the industry for fear of inviting punishment from regulators that are required to enforce the federal prohibition on the drug.



[...]Colorado's banking regulators came to view [the problem of mounds of cash] as justification for approving a pot bank. Their rationale hinges on a detail from the Department of Justice's 2013 announcement that prosecutors should scale back prosecutions of marijuana offenses and stop pursuing cases against pot businesses that operate in compliance with their state's drug laws.