Cracking the Safe: How One Entrepreneur Opened the Door to Cannabis Banking

<p>In 2014, Sundie Seefried was six months from retiring as CEO of Partner Colorado Credit Union when she learned about the banking barriers for the cannabis industry. She postponed retirement to create a program that would provide safer, better banking options for operators. The result was Safe Harbor Financial, which has since processed more than $12 billion in cannabis-related funds and plans to go public on the Nasdaq soon.</p> <p>In this episode, Sundie shares:</p> <ul> <li>How she got dragged into the taboo conversation of marijuana banking.</li> <li>Why transparency is a key to making lives easier for regulators and marijuana business owners alike.</li> <li>How she overcame the compliance challenge by embracing it.</li> <li>How the marijuana industry can educate regulators and improve industry interactions with authorities at the same time.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Who is Sundie Seefried?</strong></p> <p>Cannabis banking pioneer Sundie Seefried is the president and CEO of Safe Harbor Financial, a cannabis banking program she developed in 2014. Sundie entered the credit union industry in Germany in the 1980s and joined Denver-based Partner Colorado Credit Union in 1995. In 2001, she took on the mantle of CEO and held that role until 2021, when she decided to turn her attention to Safe Harbor full time. She is also the author of the book “Navigating Safe Harbor: Cannabis Banking in a Time of Uncertainty,” published in 2016.</p>