Whispers hasn’t been able to nail down the identity of the Arkansas bank that has signed up to provide accounts for medical marijuana businesses and customers in conjunction with the new Little Rock company that calls its product MediPays.
But we can name another Arkansas bank that is stepping up to the plate despite the heavy regulation that comes with doing business with companies whose products violate federal law.
“HomeBank of Arkansas is moving forward with plans to provide financial services to cannabis related businesses,” CEO John Stacks said in a statement provided to Whispers.
HomeBank — never to be confused with Home BancShares Inc. of Conway, the publicly traded parent company of Centennial Bank — is one of the 15 smallest banks in Arkansas, with assets of $79.3 million as of Sept. 30. It is officially chartered at Portland, in Ashley County in extreme southeast Arkansas, where it was founded as The Peoples Bank in 1908. But most of its business is in north-central Arkansas — Greenbrier, Damascus, Marshall.
Stacks said HomeBank is ramping up by dedicating three employees to the new line of business. (Call reports filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. indicate that the five-office bank’s employee count has grown from 28 at the end of 2016 to 34 as of Sept. 30.) Most importantly, HomeBank is using a third-party vendor of cannabis banking services, Safe Harbor Services LLC, a subsidiary created in July by Partner Colorado Credit Union.
“We at HomeBank want to do our part in this new industry, one that will provide treatment to those in need and even provide a boost to local economies,” Stacks said in the statement. “Just as importantly, we want to do our part in the communities we serve by providing a service that will make those communities safer by providing [cannabis-related businesses] a way to conduct business other than in a cash-only environment.”
Stacks might seem an unlikely pioneer in the marijuana banking industry. His bank, while modestly profitable, is small by any standard. What’s more, Stacks has already been through the federal regulatory wringer: He was indicted in December 2013 on charges of taking out a fraudulent Small Business Administration loan after his property in Van Buren County was struck by a tornado in 2008.
He was convicted on seven felony counts after a federal court jury trial in 2014, but U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes questioned whether there was sufficient evidence to convict Stacks. Holmes acquitted Stacks of two of the counts and ordered a new trial on the remaining five charges. Ultimately, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Little Rock dismissed all charges in 2016.
“I guess I’m one of the people not afraid to take a little criticism from time to time,” Stacks said last week. “You can’t be afraid of your shadow.”
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