SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Shield Compliance (https://www.shieldbanking.com/), a comprehensive compliance management platform for banking legal marijuana-related businesses (MRBs), announced a partnership with Credit Union 1, which provides banking services to MRBs in Illinois and Nevada. Credit Union 1 has implemented Shield Assure to automate its data compliance processes, and Shield Engage to facilitate new member onboarding.

“Shield Engage is a core piece of our cannabis banking program because it allows us to accelerate the pace of new member onboarding while keeping our member information centrally located and stored. As a result, we can be even more responsive to our members, while providing transparency to our regulators,” said Todd Gunderson, President and CEO of Credit Union 1. “Shield Compliance supports our commitment to fully compliant cannabis banking and makes us comfortable exploring additional opportunities to provide financial services to our members, including lending.”

Credit Union 1 serves approximately 89,000 members throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Nevada. It launched its cannabis banking program in January 2020 when Illinois became the 11th state in the country to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use. Besides providing a full range of banking services to MRBs, it extends its services to MRB employees, including mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, home equity loans, and other financial services.

“The cannabis industry is becoming increasingly attractive to financial institutions like Credit Union 1 because it allows them to expand and diversify their portfolios while offsetting the cost of compliance through the generation of non-interest income,” said Tony Repanich, President and COO of Shield Compliance. “By leveraging Shield’s technology platform to streamline the data collection process, Credit Union 1 can improve the member experience while maintaining an extremely high level of compliance and due diligence. This gives them a major advantage in the market, particularly as banking competition for the best MRBs intensifies in legal cannabis states.”

About Shield Compliance

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Shield Compliance is transforming how financial institutions manage risk, comply with regulations, and satisfy operational demands associated with serving the legal cannabis market across the U.S. Its purpose-built AML/BSA compliance management software solution sits behind the financial institution to simplify compliance, automate processes across multiple data sources, create efficiencies, unlock new revenue, and scale operations.

• Shield Assure, powered by the Shield Data Hub, aggregates financial institutions’ transaction data and demographic records with restricted and publicly available information from state and local governments, seed to sale tracking, and client financial statements.
• Shield Engage facilitates the new client application and underwriting process between MRBs and financial institutions in a simple, streamlined, and secure customer experience tailored to meet banking partners’ operational requirements.
• Shield Transact enables cashless, electronic, commercial, and consumer payment programs.

For more information, please visit https://www.shieldbanking.com or contact info@shieldbanking.com.