Last month, KPLU ran a story about a local credit union that accepted medical cannabis bank accounts. Under the sensational headline, "Local credit union tries on being banker to the pot industry," the head of Verity Credit Union admitted the business had opened accounts for up to fifteen medical cannabis dispensaries, but was uneasy about opening more.

Now, thanks to the story—and specifically the headline—Bill Hayes tells me Verity has changed its policy and is closing all medical cannabis bank accounts. "The headline on the interview on KPLU’s website indicated that Verity wanted to be the banker for the pot industry. This conclusion was not an accurate statement of the Credit Union," writes Hayes. "Since there is nothing in our Credit Union’s strategic plan dealing with the cannabis industry, I realized that I had given the wrong impression during the interview."

Hayes then re-consulted Verity's attorney and personally made the decision to reverse course, to stop accepting new pot businesses, and to cancel current medical cannabis bank accounts. "While we have always monitored these accounts closely, I felt that in order to continue servicing these accounts, we would have had to perform significantly greater monitoring activities. I do not believe that we have the resources nor the expertise to do this. Thus, we decided to close the medical cannabis accounts."

The move affects 13 customers, some of whom opened accounts a just few weeks before the KPLU story aired. "I feel bad for these folks," Hayes acknowledges. "We were the only game in town for them."

Running a cash-based business won't be a new thing for affected customers. "Most of them were operating like this before," Hayes says. He believes banking is a key hurdle the state must address to make its cannabis legalization law work. "They'll want these folks to have financial institutions."

Hayes says he doesn't know whether Verity will open accounts for legal cannabis businesses licensed by the Washington State Liquor Control Board. "Until the state and federal government get aligned, for financial institutions it's difficult to deal with this right now."