Business View Magazine | September 2022

106 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 phone call will be. And I like it that way.” BVM: When it comes to advocacy, what are some of the prominent issues right now? Gwaltney: “In North Carolina, most of our banking laws have been modernized over the last decade. Each legislative session here consists mostly of small, technical bills that are not controversial and don’t require heavy lobbying and media relations to get them passed. Most of our banking legislation and regulatory efforts are focused in Washington. One of the big issues we’re watching right now is the Safe Banking Act that makes it legal for banks to do business with cannabis-related businesses. Many states have now legalized marijuana, either medicinally, recreationally, or both. The problem is that it’s illegal at the federal level. So banks cannot do business with businesses that have anything to do with cannabis. That means those businesses have to operate on a cash basis – keep money in the vault and just be very careful. They can’t deposit it in the bank like any other retailer. “So we are lobbying that it’s a public safety hazard; that the money needs to be in the banking system, so it can be tracked by law enforcement and taxed by the IRS. And just to be safer. This legislation would also make it very clear that a bank can do business with a cannabis-related business and eliminate the potential for an inadvertent violation of law,