Cannabis Payments Edge Further Toward the Mainstream

The U.S. cannabis market, which saw $30.1 billion in sales last year, is growing at an accelerating pace, and that’s attracting the attention of processors and other providers. The market’s emergence as a fertile payments-processing market comes as it continues to wrestle with regulatory issues and limited banking services.

POSaBIT Systems Corp., a publicly held point-of-sale processor focused on this market, reported on Thursday net earnings of $634,700 for its June quarter, representing a swing to profitability after four straight quarters of losses. The profit emerged despite a drop in revenue from $4.08 million to $2.65 million.

“We have reached a noteworthy time at POSaBIT, thanks to all our hard work and emphasis we have been putting on merchant growth and company profits,” noted Ryan Hamlin, cofounder and chief executive of the 10-year-old Seattle-based company, according to remarks released by the company.

Another sign of interest from payments companies comes with the news Thursday that Fiserv Inc., one of the nation’s largest processors, will serve as a title sponsor at PBC Conference 2025, a 7-year-old trade show focused on cannabis banking and set for Sept. 3-4 in Washington, D.C.

Fiserv is developing two key payment solutions within the cannabis industry. Fiserv’s Accel Network is the first-to-market debit payment network leveraging real-time debit rails, enabling consumers to make purchases at dispensaries in states where cannabis is legal. Additionally, Fiserv offers a business debit card for dispensary small business owners to purchase non-cannabis-related items, such as office supplies, to help manage purchases for their business.

As companies like POSaBIT identify opportunities in this market, major banks and transaction processors have started to see opportunity here as well. The opportunity to serve the market comes even as cannabis remains an illegal substance at the federal level in the United States. As an example, First Citizens Bank, based in Raleigh, N.C., began serving growers and retail sellers. Observers have pointed out that an opening for banks and processors in this market occurred with passage of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the Farm Bill. The act legalized the production of hemp, or cannabis sativa, at a THC concentration of no more than 0.3%.