Cannabis industry launches ‘debanking’ survey

A survey to understand the scale of UK cannabis industry banking challenges has been launched by the Cannabis Industry Council (CIC).

This follows ongoing anecdotal concerns across the industry about accessibility issues for bank accounts and other financial services.

Without a business bank account, not only are company operations impacted, but as a limited company they are unable to operate legally.

The survey, which will take just 3 – 5 minutes to complete, can be accessed here

Cannabis Industry Council CEO, Mike Morgan-Giles, commented: “The Cannabis Industry Council has anecdotally heard of cannabis businesses being unable to open bank accounts, receive payments, and conduct basic banking activities.

“These restrictions impact upon the ability of businesses to function, harming the financial viability of our legitimate industry, as well as potentially causing stress to those involved.

“We encourage the entire industry to complete our survey, so we can better understand the state-of-play, and engage regulators with any concerns.”

There are already regulations designed to help ensure customers are allowed to open bank accounts. However, financial institutions retain significant scope to reject potential business clients.

The debanking survey runs until Friday 27 October, and is open to the entire UK prescription cannabis, CBD, and hemp industry.

All responses will be entirely confidential, with only aggregated data used in any follow-up activity.