SAFE Banking Act shows benefits of financial sector cooperation

Last week’s historic House vote to advance the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act was an example of what can happen when the financial services sector works together, CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan wrote in The Hill Tuesday.

Donovan says the story of how the bill advanced represents some of the best practices in financial services lawmaking, starting with the tenacity of the bill’s sponsors, Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Denny Heck (D-Wash.), Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio).

“Their efforts were supported by a unified financial services sectors led by credit unions, banks and their associations working together to help Congress and their industries understand that the cannabis banking legislation wasn’t about making cannabis legal, but rather about making sure that legal cannabis business can bank safely,” Donovan writes. “Credit unions and banks working together on Capitol Hill might sound novel, and it certainly makes lawmakers take notice, but it’s not new. We’ve worked together to enact regulatory relief legislation; we stood side by side at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; we’ve even been on the same side of data breach litigation.

 

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