How Can I Sign Florida Banking Word

Industry sign banking florida form safe

right we are live on another edition of elevate your grind brought to you by the cannabis lab I am your host Todd Rosales you're gonna be seeing a lot of me we've got a backlog of people that we just can't wait to get on the show and so it seems like you're gonna be doing a lot of these starting next week not next week with beginning of May we're really gonna get on a regular schedule I know I've mentioned this a few times but tune in every Monday and Thursday at 4:20 to see a new previously live aired version of elevate your grind we're gonna figure out what day to do a live show if you guys can if you're watching this episode please drop what you'd like to see in the comments is it better for us to do it 4:30 in the afternoon 4:20 in the afternoon would you rather see them at 2:00 p.m. or should we turn this into a morning show and wake up with you guys in the morning we want to know what you want we want to make sure that we're giving you the information that you want to see my guest today is someone that you're gonna want to see so you don't even get a choice in the matter she is one of the unsung heroes of the cannabis industry when we talk about some of the biggest challenges for cannabis companies right now banking is the number one challenge not having access to banking programs not having access to banks bank accounts a lot of different things my guest today is changing that and she's working with companies and not only that she's leading the charge to make change in Washington as well team so very special guest today I know I say that a lot but maybe we should add a second very a very very special guest today please welcome Dana Chavez hi Todd thank you for an answer and for the ability to be on elevate your grind today no thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us cuz I can only imagine how busy you guys are at First Federal right now so for you to take some time out of your day to help educate our audience means a lot to us so you know let's just start getting right to the point in the cannabis industry and I mentioned this in the introduction the biggest challenge for companies is access to banking and access to small business loans and access to typical financing avenues for most startups that cannabis just can't get to so most companies are stuck selling you know selling equity to raise money and you know it's not always fun is especially if it's a small amount of money to have to give away equity just to buy some equipment or to open up a new dispensary or take to get a new piece of real estate that's not the best way to do business because it dilutes the founder and then it dilutes the interest in the company and I know not everybody's like that so I went off on a little tangent but talk to us how did you how are you guys able to support the cannabis industry because you guys are doing great work there at first federal ok well the the major misnomer that when you call a bank and ask if they are banking the industry and you know a lot of banks will tell you no because it's federally illegal well that's not of course it's federally illegal but banks individually have the ability to decide whether they want to take on the risk of starting a compliant banking program or not you know it starts at the top with the board of directors and the senior executives in 2018 first Federal sat down and decided that as they had already previously banked high risk cast intensive industries that it just made sense to go into the cannabis industry especially with the Florida landscape and how it's growing so I came or last year to help build and run the program so we launched our cannabis banking program April 1st of last year and in May we extended that to include CBD and hemp we have a very successful program we've opened up nearly over 400 accounts to date and we are excited to expand everyday our capabilities and our products and services available to the cannabis space therefore like I said the biggest issue is whether or not ace will decide to take on the risk there are a lot of inherent risks involved with a cannabis banking program and compliance sure and that's amazing that you guys have over 400 accounts now so when I was doing my research for this interview I saw an older article it might have been from from last summer you guys only had 62 accounts at that time with 55 applications in the hopper so you know less than a year later you're up over 400 you know much more than that so I want to kind of dig into how you're doing this a little I read that your bank is you're tearing these companies right so you have tier 1 tier 2 tier 3 and if I recall correctly tier 1 is plant touching companies tier 2 would be ancillary companies and then tier 3 would be Medical Marijuana companies you know as your process like you said there's a lot of risk involved with banking marijuana companies do you guys have a different risk profile for those tiers and is there a different level of diligence needed to be done depending on the tier that accompanies in yeah yes glad you asked our Tier one relationships are exactly that revenue derived from the testing of the plant whether it's growing selling extract whatever Cam's right now are reserved for Florida State license holders and we are expanding into other states here we have one in mind that we're working on starting operations in about 90 days and after that it'll be before the end of the year before we can go into our third stay fort irwin operations there's a lot involved with moving into each state we want to be prepared with internal staff to monitor the transactions because for Tier one we do a very enhanced due diligence process we live under every rock and my never hurt you with every company and we do monitor every transaction and every location every day here - on the other hand it's the same application process but not as deep as far as the due diligence is concerned and monitoring although we do make sure that we can monitor all the tracks transactions whether it's incoming wires or outgoing wires we are able to bank tier two businesses in all 50 states so tier two can be anything from an ancillary business or private equity firm to an investment firm even as a for a care one company to have their capital raise dollars and pay their construction and run rate fees Tier three is a little more farther removed reserved for doctors offices lawyers etc very cool yeah its banking is a real issue and I don't think people realize how much of an issue it is you know up let me correct that I think people probably realize how much of an issue it is for your tier one companies right the ones that are plant touching but I think the general public doesn't realize that if you service the cannabis industry even if it's not your main source of income that you could potentially lose your bank account before I you know my in my last role in the cannabis industry I work for an organization and we had the name cannabis in the title of an event that we were doing and we were promoting that event it was in our email signatures and when we sent an email to the bank they saw that and basically gave us I want to say a week to find a new bank and this is a bank that my former boss was banking with for a very long time had significant amounts of money in there and it just didn't matter to them and on top of that we weren't servicing anybody plant touching where is actually an event for ancillary companies to raise capital so you know you can be that far removed from the plant and lose your your banking relationship you know I read your testimony that that you gave to Congress the written one that that's online and you you have a couple horror stories that that you were able to solve and add an happy ending to I don't know if you're able to share any of those with us today but I think it's important for people to realize what's happening you know I just real quick I'll get into one that I know of beyond our own company I interviewed Ricky Williams I've been friends with Ricky for a while Ricky and his wife had a CVD company and they you know Ricky Williams was an athlete athletes make a lot of money he had a lot of money in the bank and he lost his banking relationship he lost not only their business she lost his personal banking relationships and I believe they got rid of some of these kids banks accounts so I can only imagine the horror stories that you have so would you mind sharing one or two with us if you can and really how you stepped in and I want to say save the day because that's really what you did right I hear them I get horror stories every day and try to help pick up the pieces for people and companies alike you know so gosh you know what in particular is you know a Florida company who just purchased a license and they're not even doing anything yet and the credit union told them that they had an hour to come and take five million dollars out of their credit hours over an hour and then she mentioned one of the regulators names and so the credit union said well on second thought you have 15 minutes come get your cashier's check now Wow so we had to do our due diligence typically takes two to three weeks before we can open an account because that's how deep we have to dive into everybody's background we had to have all hands on deck and get her application in and done in less than an hour so we could open her account to take the run her funds it was crazy another instance another instance is an executive from a major vendor company for the cannabis industry he would him and his wife were in the process of refinancing their home and literally 30 minutes before they were supposed to close their bank called and did a one last check on their and found out that he worked for a marijuana related business and they refused to refinance his house so we stepped in and took care of it for him so the banks are not only severing the relationships with the businesses but also the people within the business too so there there are people that are being affected personally if I'm reading this correctly mm-hmm definitely their banks don't want to refinance their homes give them mortgages or even service their employees payroll paychecks so we made sure that we can help them with all of those products and services we do auto loans credit cards mortgages for people in the cannabis space so let's get into that a little bit I just want to do a quick aside I actually for the first time ever but just because of who you are and how important this is to the cannabis industry I pulled up our Facebook live on my phone because I figured hey if people are watching this they're probably gonna have some good questions however nobody's asking questions they're just praising you saying how great you are so nobody's nobody has questions for you but they all want us to know how great you are actually I'm gonna call him out just because he's done this three times with Barry Gordon is singing your praises very highly on on our Facebook live so Barry thank you for telling us how great name is we're aware and that's why she's here Thank You Barry three clients Barry bangbang thank you for commenting here so too I like going off on those tangents but to get back on what we were talking about you know you guys are banking the cannabis industry you have your tears but you know I think there's still a lot of services that are not available to cannabis companies but when a company comes to you besides just being able to have a banking account and a place to keep their money what other services are you able to provide them that they would otherwise get from their typical banking relationship not that you're not a typical banking relationship but you guys are you know specializing in cannabis well you know we can offer quite a few services even more so than some of the smaller state chartered credit unions and community banks that are servicing this industry because we are two billion in assets so we're fairly large and that allows us a couple of things we don't put restrictions on the incoming and outgoing of wires both domestic and international we have a robust treasury management service we also allow for ACH bill pay cheques debit cards and we've also started allowing our business our cannabis businesses to apply for a secured credit card and so we who so we've had a few companies starting to take care take advantage of that so they need a two hundred thousand dollar limit then we open up a separate account and hold those funds for that so that they can have those credit cards at those limits that's incredible because you know for from an outsider looking in that's the closest you're gonna get to a traditional banking rate and I'm a banking relationship we've got so many great entrepreneurs in this space and it's just a shame that they're silly handicapped by the regulations and not able to get loans or like you said credit cards or even debit cards so I think what you guys are doing is incredible and then to back out of first federal for a bit to focus on you you I know that you're on the NCI a Banking Committee are you still the head of that or has your I don't remember if I'm missed in your time passed I passed the torch to Tyler burr lying with hyper list where lately familiar with Tyler he's now the chairman I've known Tyler for a number of years he's one of my favorite teams so yes I was I've been a part of that committee for three years and it's just an amazing committee we we do everything volunteer we try to do everything we can for the industry and the businesses in the industry very cool can talk to us a little bit about some of your experiences because I'm gonna get I'm guessing that you were chairing that committee you know when there is a lot of hearings on safe banking you know I know that last year there there are a couple big votes that that you guys have participated in what was that experience like sitting down with lawmakers and and really advocating for what most of us believe is probably the most important thing that this industry needs to continue to thrive well when we when we go with NCIA for Lobby days you know we break up into groups and we literally meet with the legislators and their chiefs of staff and you know it's so many the legislators are for the industry and for helping so the great thing is that when you tell them your personal stories of the setbacks and what you have to go through just to operate as a normal business and all of the obstacles that you know this industry has you know them it's a wake up call for them and they start they start realizing more and more and I think that's why the industry is gaining momentum legislatively not know I think it's great and you know there listen there are a lot of podcasts they get a bigger audience than that but that's part of why Robert and I wanted to start this was to kind of let people tell their stories on a public forum right and and lift the blanket off the cannabis industry and showcase people like yourself that are you know highly professional very very good at what they do I mean you have a very deep history in doing what you do and now you're doing it for the cannabis industry and it's no different than what you were doing before it's just the type of people not even the type of people you're working for the type of businesses that you're working for so you know one thing I actually wanted to ask you and I didn't have a chance to look it up before but you know we're first federal is located and where you guys are headquartered well there are a lot of agricultural relationships before you guys got into cannabis that kind of tip the hat there or was it were you dealing with other regulated industries I know you touched on it kind of at the top of this podcast but just want to get into that just because it's amazing when someone's willing to take a risk well of course in Florida there is an extreme amount of agricultural businesses and need for banking and that's that's one of them but like I said we've traditionally Bank high-risk cash intensive industries like money transmitters many services casinos even down to chicken and tobacco farms you know and so it just made sense for the Board of Directors seeing the landscape and the trends of you know what ho the legislative and regulatory moving forward in Florida that it just made sense for them to say we got to get into this and help help our community sure so I know you pass the torch to Tyler as far as the NCAA committee goes but you know being here in Florida and then obviously having the relationships that you've built from that committee do you still get involved in lobbying down here at Florida or even helping shape policy and are you still involved in the national level as well yes on both I work I work very closely with Holly Bell at the state level and do what I can there get some input and sit in on as many of the meetings regarding policies and regulations as I can and nationally I like to keep my you know I'd like to keep my momentum going in Washington DC with all the contacts that I have so I always reaching out to one of my contacts in Washington DC on certain items or issues and to see how or what needs to be done in order to move something forward or fix an issue sure and and on that note do you see any legislation whether it's the state of Florida or whether it's national that that's coming down that people should really keep their eye on that are in this industry you know what are the type of things that are happening I mean I'm sure a lot of it is I want to say being put on the back burner but a lot of its kind of being pushed aside with kovat and I know other people are trying to get that push back into the mask us cause cause of kovat right but but outside of that what should people be keeping their eye on if they're in this industry all right now we're really trying to push forward you know the the cannabis small business Health and Safety Act which will include cannabis businesses in the next round of SBA assistance for disaster relief that's what we're hoping to get accomplished and get that passed sooner before the next rounds are going out for funding keep an eye on that and I'm going to tell you that if something happens it happens quickly and banks run out of those funds really fast like the like the first round of the SBA PPP loans unfortunately cannabis and marijuana related businesses we're not eligible however the CVV and hem businesses are eligible and we ran out of funding within two days Wow that's how quick so if you get your application turn it in immediately yeah no I've seen that I've seen it with my dad's business and with my own business they ran out of money quickly but you know in that in that PPP loan were the installation service is eligible for that you know your your private equity groups mammy I know they have a high amount of money but even you know the the law firms are the accounting firms that service the client touching they weren't eligible for that no and I I had some ancillary businesses that I work closely with all the time and it was the hardest response to give to tell them that they just were not eligible and you know it just makes me sick to my stomach to know that I have such good relationships with olives our our clients and I normally can help them on a dime but this time I could no I completely understand I mean it's interesting to me it I'm interested to know the thought process behind a lot of your clients when a program like this is announced do they just kind of automatically assume like yeah we're probably not going to be eligible for that because we're a cannabis company or do they do they get hopeful and reach out it's 5050 a lot already assume that they're not going to be eligible and then others if you don't ask you don't get so you never know when it's going to you know come up but at the same time I have to tell you that most banks only process the applications if you are one of their primary if they are your primary bank if you don't bank with them or you're not their primary you know they're not your primary bank they're not as quick to process your application have you know they're having and I'm getting into probably speculative territory here but you would know better than I would you know there are other states that are looking to create programs within their state for one reason or another and not specifically for cannabis considering our state deemed cannabis essential is the state looking to do anything to help out our businesses I mean to ask somebody to keep their doors open through a pandemic and ask their employees to come in to work every day while you're telling everybody else don't leave the house don't go out do whatever you can to social distance is there any kind of rumblings in the state that might help out with something you know I haven't come across anything significant right now and as I get in it's all hearsay so I really don't want to say anything and give anybody fall so I just do pay attention daily to the news coming out so you know I just if anybody wants to reach out and ask me a question I'm more than happy to help them out absolutely so you know you have a lot of close relationships with all of your clients and it's amazing I'm sure the banks due diligence process is extremely intricate and it you know very very thorough when you're when your clients are looking for access to additional capital do you guys play any kind of broker role in helping connect capital sources with these canvas companies or you know is there are there plans for an investment arm I'm just it only seems natural to me that you probably know more about these companies than anybody else they're gonna meet just given the relationship that you have so it must be I almost want to say you guys are able to bet on the right horse is pretty easily I always tell everybody you know this is looking for a bank just your banker is going to end up being one of your one of your closest contacts that you deal with on a regular basis so I and this helps me gain a really close relationship with everybody but to answer your question we do not have an investment side when I have clients that need capital if we we are looking into real estate lending a sign of a case-by-case basis and anything above that I asked a few of my other equity private equity firms if it's OK to do an introduction and if they allow it then I do an introduction but other than that all I can do is just say ask for permission absolutely Dana we're gonna pause for one second because somebody actually asked how they can get in touch with you so I want to go ahead and throw your contact information up on the screen here and this is the first time we've ever done this on on Facebook live so hopefully it works but for those of you asking you can reach Dana right here her phone number and email address have been added to the screen I'm assuming everybody on Facebook live that's what you're looking at instead of looking at us and yeah I'm correct okay so if you guys want to get in touch with Dana here's her contact information I know we don't do these for every guest but obviously banking is extremely important and access the money during this time is even more so important so we want to make sure that you can reach out to her and we'll throw this up again at the end of at the end of this podcast so we're gonna go back to the podcast here but I wanted to make sure that everybody had the ability to check that out I think that also took me off my train of thought of where I wanted to go next but um Deanna you know what are what are some listen you guys are banking cannabis you guys are offering incredible service even the fact that you know you're helping can't you know you're helping connect capital to two companies is incredible and I don't see why any more who wouldn't want to have a relationship with you you know what would you suggest for people that are looking to work with first federal you know where do they need to be in the process can can they get started with you when they're still in the idea phase do they need to be operating talk to us about what your client profiles look like and the type companies that you're able to work with beyond just the tearing because I know we covered that already right well within the proper tiers within the you know the states that each tier is available you know I have to tell you that the application process isn't you know once you complete your application again you can expect two to three weeks for your due diligence tips before your account is open but you know if we have 12 applications in at the same time there's going to be a little bit of a backlog we don't have a restriction right now on how many accounts we can open within a certain amount of time or period to upset their concentration risk you know some smaller institutions can only open so many accounts you know a quarter and we're fortunate enough that we are not bound by those restrictions at this time to our size however I just need everybody to know follow the directions implicitly any Vivien's from that can delay your account opening and just don't come to me and say I need an account tomorrow because it will never happen you know they do take time and we work very diligently to get all these accounts opened in a timely manner and we know and that you know banking and having an account to deposit your funds is imperative to doing business we just have to stay within our policy and within the OCC regulations and we want to make sure that nothing up to the cracks right yeah and and I would suggest you know if you're a cannabis company for a CBD company if you're someone who is a little uncomfortable with your banking relationship to maybe start looking right because I'm sure and Dana I'm sure you can agree with this it's a lot easier to go through the process when you have a stable banking relationship that may may or may not work out or you're worried about it or you know you have cannabis in your name or you have the leaf on your logo and there's a ton of other problems you're dealing with then to wait for to get that email from your bank that says hey you have X amount of time to get out because you may not have that much time to go through the due diligence process and let's be honest you know you can't you can't you're not always gonna be able to drop everything you're doing and pull every resource on the bank to help somebody I mean I know those are extreme cases but it's not realistic right it's not and you know my what I always tell everybody when they tell me oh you know I have a relationship with Wells Fargo or chase and they know exactly what we're doing and they say well your local branch banker might know exactly what you're doing but if you call the 800 number and ask if they're banking the industry they will automatically say no so those institutions you know says your direct contact we know what you're doing at the back of the house doesn't when the back of the house finds out it's inevitable that your account is going to be closed so just don't wait until the last minute because they're not accepting those businesses to give me they're not accepting businesses in this industry yeah and I can imagine listen you know if somebody's banking with somebody for a long time I'm sure that you have a great relationship with your banker and they want to I'm sure they have the best intentions thinking hey we want to help you we want to keep your business I don't want to lose this relationship and I know you're gonna have a hard time anywhere else and unfortunately like you said when when the principal's office finds out you're still going to get detention so you know I would definitely watch this podcast and listen to the information because to me I don't see why a company this industry wouldn't want just the the peace of mind by working with a company like yours it just makes sense to me Nina what anyway listen I want to make sure that we're educating people because I think banking is one of the most important topics in this industry because it is very complicated there is a lot of noise out there you know Tyler did a very good job of clearing it up from us from a payment standpoint but what other information and am I not asking you about that we think is important for people in this industry to know and I know that's a loaded question my taking second to come back with it well I'm going to leave the payment section up to Tyler and other payment providers we don't offer merchant services directly where we're working to put something in place and we're working actually with hiper to put something in place but again just don't take anything for granted this isn't your normal bank account we do require a lot of personal information we transparency is key and just in diligent and flexible with your time if we ask for information it's best to give us that information sooner rather than later so you know I don't want to avoid this topic because I think if first federal took the risk in in banking the cannabis industry they certainly should reap the reward right so how has working with the cannabis industry affected the company um you know have you guys seen growth you know is business booming and and honestly that's not a bad thing people look at banks and they look at big institutions and they think 2008 but at the end of the day when we have a bank that's banking cannabis and the more accounts that they can bring in and the more assets that they could manage the more people they can help right so have you guys seen that ability or have you seen a ton of growth by working with cannabis is the risk worth the reward keep in mind were barely a year old in our program and we've seen you know over 400 counts that's a lot that that lets you know that we're serious and we're not leaving the industry anytime so unless of course something egregious happens which we are more than positive that will never happen yes we've seen tremendous growth and with what we see and where we're moving into this will probably be one of our most profitable service lines very cool and has some of that growth really benefited the the rest of the industries that you service as well I mean I can only imagine by by bringing in more money and bringing in more accounts that you're able to bring in specialists and other people you know are you seeing some of those benefits across the board we're getting to the point where we can take a deep breath and just exhale and we see we see the revenue streams growing quarter by quarter of course you know we like to be a lot further than we are this kovin crisis as you know slowed down a few things but not the tier one because they've been deemed essential however I've seen a slowdown and a lot of the equity you know private equity firms and investment deposits sure know Dana thank you so much for joining us and for the information provided today you know like I said I think you're an amazing resource for our industry I'm glad that you're you're located here in the state of Florida and you know I'm really glad that that you became a member of Sealab and that you you spend time with us you know one thing that we're always interested about and I really want to start advocating more for our group because personally to me it's really helped my career is you know what attracted you guys to Sealab and and how has your experience been since joining actually I came across Sealab a few years ago and attended your event at in Las Vegas and I was I saw the attraction that he had there and also being in Florida and being cielab headquartered in Florida it just made sense to take advantage of the networking opportunities and just to get out there and see who's in the industry here and see you know the relationships that we can make I really have enjoyed Sealab wherever you you both have been tremendous thank you well let's give a lot more credit to Robert people have only been seeing my face in January and listen I'm just I'm just a guy with a microphone but Roberts really done a great job building this group you're a very integral part of that group I mean you support many companies that are members of Sealab and you know I hope once this is all over when we have the conference in October that you'll sit down and share your knowledge with us again for sure Dana we're gonna go ahead and wrap this up while we're wrapping it up I'm gonna change things up I'm gonna throw your contact information back up on the screen but do you h ve any parting words for us for our guests about you know they're gonna know how to contact you but any other things you want to leave us with as far as what they should know just that thank you for having me on looking forward to getting out there you know we are a federally chartered mutual banks so we have the ability to bank clients in all 50 states Tier one isn't there yet but we're moving forward so please take take my number take my email address feel free to give me a call or an email anytime I'd be happy to answer any questions you have and to see if we can work together absolutely well Dana thank you so much you're as we get said everybody her contact information is up on the screen both phone number and email address like all these guys I really hope that you benefited from this conversation as much as I did banking is the number-one topic that I think we need to cover in cannabis it is one of the most important things that this industry needs and not only that but access to other traditional banking services such as SBA loans Dana you guys are doing amazing work I can't thank you enough especially being here in Florida in supporting a lot of the companies that that are in Sealab you know hopefully it will have you on again sometime soon and maybe next time we can do a live Q&A and we can really let some smarter people pick your brain than me I look forward to it thank you thank you for the show absolutely all right folks well thank you again for watching elevate your grind this has been an incredible episode we are actually be going live tomorrow morning so instead of being live at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon we're gonna keep you on your toes we want to wake up and have a have some coffee with you but hey we're late bloomers and a lot of us work West Coast hours so we will see you tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. check us out live on the cannabis lab Facebook page if we're probably gonna try to get us on LinkedIn but definitely be live on the Facebook page if you have any questions for our guests or if you have any questions for us please feel free to drop them in the comments when this code thing is all over folks we're gonna get back to regular schedule of programs we're gonna be meeting in person again and then we're gonna be having our conference hopefully still in October at the end of the year at the Fountainbleu Miami please check us out WWE Sealab comm that's where you can find out all the information about cannabis lab guys it's Thursday everybody have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow