Valley Bank + Green Check Verified

Overview

Leaders from Green Check and Valley Bank — a near century old, national financial institution — share their experience of partnering to build a scalable, best-in-class cannabis banking program that exceeds the expectations of customers of all sizes. 

Erik Sapp VP, Revenue Operations, Green Check

Valley Bank is one of Green Check’s earliest clients. It’s really been exciting to see their program evolve to become a best-in-class cannabis banking program. The key pillar of our partnership is tech enablement. The Green Check platform allows Valley Bank to understand the cannabis dollars coming into their institution are the result of state-legal marijuana sales. We do this through data bridging, where we bring in information from the point-of-sale systems.

In addition, we help expedite the onboarding of their cannabis businesses, as well as help them file the critical FinCEN reports that they were required to do on an ongoing basis. The partnerships are more than technology. They’re about teamwork. We have weekly meetings where we work with the Valley team to ensure that we’re addressing customer concerns, that we’re iteratively working through product enhancements, ultimately driving value to their clients.

What’s really exciting to see is when we interact with one of Valley’s clients, they often see us as a part of the Valley team, and that really is the gold standard for partnership.

Jennifer Yager, Head of Financial Crimes Compliance, Valley Bank

Valley’s decision to enter the cannabis space didn’t happen overnight. Like a lot of banks at the time, our aim started with being able to create a program that we could pull off the shelf should SAFE Banking Act pass.

As we moved through that process and evaluated the legal and regulatory landscape, we came to the conclusion that we didn’t have to wait. And the fact that there had been no pattern of regulatory actions against banks solely for serving cannabis businesses. So we’re able to get over that hurdle. Next came making the business case. We had to get our board and executive management comfortable with the program.

From there, we previewed our plan with our regulators and then launched into a pilot program. As we thought about moving our program from paper to practice, we knew there’d be a considerable compliance burden. So we looked to create processes that could be automated and scalable, and we knew we needed technology to help. We didn’t have the resources to build something internally, so we went out to the marketplace.

We looked at a variety of different vendors who were all at varying stages of maturity, but we ultimately landed on Green Check Verified. 

Caroline Colone, FVP, Director of Specialty Banking Services, Valley Bank

We service all types of cannabis-related businesses from entities that are directly engaged in the production, sale or distribution of cannabis to the ancillary businesses that provide services to the industry. So basically, any business who derives a material amount of revenue from this industry.

We are a national bank. Therefore we will bank any state that fits our program. We offer a full wallet share with treasury services no different than we would offer our commercial clients. A lot of education and research went into understanding the complexity of the industry, pain points, and how underserved the industry was. We started in New Jersey, where we are headquartered, only banking medical marijuana and approved for only five accounts.

Well, that challenge was overcome rather quickly. Fast forward four years. In the space, we are serving cannabis in 29 states, banking some of the top multi-state operators, micro-businesses, women in business, social equity applicants, and many, many more. It’s a passionate industry. I met some great partners over the years. However, it remains complex, evolving, and unpredictable. You need to be patient. It’s a long journey, not only for the clients but for all who have taken on the challenge to enter the space. 

Jennifer Yager, Head of Financial Crimes Compliance, Valley Bank

So we like Green Check Verified because their approach to pulling in the point-of-sale transaction information gave us the most visibility and detail into those transactions. This enabled us to get comfortable with the transactions and ensure they are from state-legal cannabis businesses. 

Also important to us at the time, as we were launching this as a pilot program, was that Green Check wasn’t a heavy lift to implement. It’s a cloud-based solution. Green Check did all of the heavy lifting, so it was a light lift on our part. It didn’t involve a lot of resources, so it was easy to get off the ground, get launched, and get moving with our first five pilot customers.

Green Check was happy to listen and partnered with us on that journey to help us reach those goals. 

Caroline Colone, FVP, Director of Specialty Banking Services, Valley Bank

There are a few ways to start the application process. Valley has a centralized unit that handles and manages all cannabis-related businesses, therefore providing a one-point of contact offering a business concierge service. We have a dedicated 800 number and a CRB mailbox.

Valley is a 95+ year-old bank with over 230 locations having a presence in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Alabama, Illinois, and California. The prospects can visit our local branches or speak to any one of our associates who make a warm introduction to one of our client specialists who will handle the application process.

An important piece of advice that I can give when starting this journey is to be transparent. It will result in a better experience.

Erik Sapp VP, Revenue Operations, Green Check

I think what stands out most to me about Valley’s program is that they provide a full suite of services to improve lending, which is rare these days. You know, regardless of the size of your company, if you’re a mom-and-pop shop or you’re the largest multi-state operator out there, you know Valley Bank is the bank for you.

And that means that if you have multiple bank accounts, you know, or you’re a larger operator, I highly recommend connecting with Valley about their program. I’m confident that they will be able to provide you with a reduction in the overall cost of your banking. They’ll wow you with their excellent customer service. I highly recommend you connect with Valley to talk to you about how they can support your business.