For all its entrepreneurial momentum, the cannabis industry still faces a fundamental challenge: outdated, fragmented financial systems. While headlines often focus on access to banking (a valid and necessary topic to discuss all on its own), a deeper issue is the absence of a unified financial infrastructure tailored to the industry’s unique needs.
From payroll to lending and insurance, many cannabis-related businesses (CRBs) still operate with siloed tools, duplicative workflows, and manual workarounds that slow growth and increase risk.
As the industry matures, so must its financial backbone. What’s needed now is not only access to banking, but also a purpose-built financial ecosystem that actually works for everyone involved.
So what should a financial infrastructure built specifically for cannabis look like?
The hidden cost of fragmented financial tools
Let’s start with one of the biggest hurdles: cost. Because cannabis businesses must meet extra compliance requirements, many financial service providers charge high fees just to obtain even the most basic of services. These costs add up quickly in an industry where margins are already razor thin. A purpose-built financial infrastructure should maintain lower costs by focusing on reducing the manual overhead associated with the additional compliance requirements of cannabis financial services. Through standardization and automation, technology can be used to greatly improve the efficiency of these services, thus resulting in lower costs passed on to CRBs.
Then there’s the question of capability. Take banking for example. Even when a bank is willing to work with CRBs, the institution may not be able to provide the services operators need. For example, a business that deals in cash requires support for things like night deposits, smart safes, or relationships with armored couriers. If a bank doesn’t offer these services natively (or doesn’t support things like international wires or ACH payments), then it limits the operator’s ability to scale. But it also creates inefficiencies across teams and forces operators to cobble together point solutions that don’t speak to each other.
Why banking alone can’t solve cannabis’s financial challenges
Many financial institutions also struggle to meet cannabis-specific compliance requirements. Some place a heavy burden on CRBs, requiring constant internal audits and manual submission of revenue data. Worse still, operators are often left in the lurch when a “cannabis-friendly” bank decides to pull out of the space or is shut down due to regulatory missteps.
Operators often must source each financial service, such as banking, payroll, lending, and insurance, independently. That means finding a provider, verifying the provider can work with CRBs, and going through an individual application and/or underwriting process each time. The redundancy wastes valuable time and creates a frustrating bottleneck.
In a fragmented system, operators repeat the same steps over and over, often providing similar sets of business, financial, and legal documentation to multiple vendors. Not only is this inefficient, but it also distracts operators from focusing on what matters: serving customers and growing their business.
The case for an integrated, automated financial ecosystem
A modern financial infrastructure for the industry must be integrated, automated, and resilient. The goal isn’t to reinvent the wheel; the goal is to build a system where financial services function as seamlessly as they do in other industries.
At the heart of this infrastructure is connectivity: a centralized set of tools that allow operators to access a network of trusted financial partners across services like banking, lending, payroll, and payments. Rather than submitting the same documentation to each provider, operators should be able to complete a single onboarding process that shares relevant information securely and selectively with all service partners.
This connectivity should extend to the systems cannabis businesses already use, like point-of-sale, seed-to-sale, accounting software, et cetera, so financial data flows automatically to the institutions that need it. The best technology is invisible. It should streamline operations without requiring operators to become compliance experts or financial analysts.
How unified infrastructure strengthens lending, payroll, and insurance
Lending, payroll, and insurance are more intertwined than they appear. Each service requires similar data sets: proof of licensure, financials like balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements, operating agreements, and compliance history. Automating the collection and sharing of this information not only would save time but also reduce the risk of human error or oversight.
For example, a lender may need revenue and cash-flow projections, while a payroll provider focuses on employee headcount and geographic expansion. A financial platform that intelligently manages these data points would ensure each service provider has the insights they need without placing the burden on the operator.
As cannabis becomes more mainstream, financial technology solutions will need to move beyond access and into orchestration. This means creating intelligent systems that not only handle transactions, but also anticipate the needs of CRBs — whether that’s automating tax compliance, managing cash flow, or helping underwrite a loan based on industry-specific data.
Regulatory clarity will unlock competition and real progress
The future lies not in one-size-fits-all tools, but in industry-specific platforms that understand the nuances of the industry from local tax regimes to inventory controls to cash logistics.
A mature financial ecosystem for cannabis would mean low or no fees for basic services, fully automated compliance processes, and widespread access to capital. Operators would be able to expand, hire, and thrive without spending their days chasing down financial services.
Key policy shifts like the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act (SAFER) Banking Act or federal rescheduling certainly would accelerate progress. But even more important is regulatory clarity. Many financial institutions don’t avoid the industry because they’re opposed to it. They avoid CRBs because they don’t know how to serve them safely.
When regulators provide clear guidance, more financial institutions will enter the market with confidence, fueling competition and innovation. The result: better, more affordable, accessible, and connected financial services for CRBs.
The bottom line: A financial system built for cannabis growth
The bottom line is this: Building a financial infrastructure that works for the cannabis industry is about more than banking access. It’s about designing an entire ecosystem that supports growth, reduces friction, and treats businesses like the legitimate enterprises they are.
What operators need to know about building a modern financial system
The lowdown on cannabis financial infrastructure.
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Why are cannabis financial services still so fragmented?
Because operators have been forced to stitch together solutions in an environment where traditional financial institutions either won’t serve them or can’t meet their needs. Even “cannabis-friendly” banks often lack the tools required for cash-intensive businesses: night deposits, smart safes, armored courier integrations, ACH, international wires, you name it.
This leaves CRBs relying on multiple point solutions — one for payroll, another for insurance, another for lending — each with its own onboarding, compliance review, and documentation requirements. The result is a maze of redundant workflows, manual data entry, and platforms that don’t communicate with one another. Fragmentation isn’t a quirk of the industry; it’s the product of infrastructure that was never designed for cannabis. Until purpose-built systems emerge, operators will keep paying in time, cost, and compliance risk.
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What would a unified financial platform actually include?
A true financial “backbone” would bring multiple pieces together into one coordinated ecosystem. Think of it as a central hub through which banking, payments, payroll, lending, insurance, and even tax compliance connect seamlessly.
Instead of onboarding separately with five different providers, operators complete one standardized intake. Instead of manually uploading financial statements every month, data flows automatically from point-of-sale, seed-to-sale, and accounting tools. Instead of juggling five dashboards, operators manage financial operations from one. The value isn’t just convenience; it’s also consistency, compliance accuracy, better visibility, and the ability to scale without multiplying administrative labor.
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How does automation lower the cost of financial services?
Historically, cannabis has been an expensive customer for financial firms to serve because compliance reviews require heavy manual labor: transaction monitoring, Know Your Customer (KYC)/Know Your Business (KYB) reviews, ongoing account verification, and audits tied to state-level reporting. Providers pass those costs on to operators through high monthly fees.
Automation changes the equation. When systems can securely pull financial data directly from CRB software, flag anomalies, verify licensure status, or generate compliance reports without human intervention, the cost burden drops significantly. Standardization also reduces errors, which reduces risk, which reduces the cost of service. The long-term impact: lower account fees, fewer surprise charges, and financial tools that look more like mainstream business banking.
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Why do banks still hesitate to serve cannabis businesses?
Risk, uncertainty, and resource strain. Many institutions aren’t ideologically opposed to cannabis. They simply don’t know how to bank the industry safely. Regulations vary from state to state, expectations for due diligence differ among regulators, and the consequences of getting it wrong can be severe.
In some cases, banks dip into the space but later exit because compliance demands outweigh the revenue potential. Others offer only partial services, forcing operators into patchwork solutions. Until banks receive consistent federal guidance and a clearer framework for what “good” cannabis compliance actually looks like, hesitation will continue. Confidence — not culture — is the missing ingredient.
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What role will federal policy play in modernizing cannabis finance?
The SAFER Banking Act and potential rescheduling won’t fix everything, but they will dramatically increase institutional confidence. SAFER could clarify expectations and give banks a more stable compliance roadmap. Rescheduling could lower perceived risk and prompt more institutions to enter the market.
But perhaps the bigger lever is regulatory clarity itself. When regulators articulate clear requirements and enforce them consistently, banks feel empowered to build durable cannabis programs. That clarity fosters competition, which fosters innovation, which leads to better, more affordable financial services for operators. Policy opens the door; technology builds the hallway.
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How will a modern financial ecosystem benefit operators?
In short: fewer headaches, lower costs, and faster growth.
A mature ecosystem means:
• Lower or no fees for basic services.
• Automated compliance, reducing time spent on audits and data pulls.
• One onboarding process, not five.
• Better access to capital, thanks to standardized financial data.
• Real-time visibility into cash flow and financial risk.
• Greater resilience, because operators aren’t relying on brittle, single-point solutions.Instead of chasing paperwork, operators can focus on expanding, hiring, innovating, and building businesses that behave like the legitimate enterprises they are.
As co-founder and chief strategy officer at Green Check, Mike Kennedy focuses on building products and solutions that unlock the value of data, empowering businesses to grow and scale. Previously, he helped scale Continuity, the first SaaS-based compliance management system for community financial institutions.
