welcome back it's time now for the business day ganja stakeholders are responding this evening to
the safe banking bill which was approved by the U.S House of Representatives the bill prohibits
regulators from penalizing banks or credit unions that do business with legitimate ganja operators
Andrew laidley has details if you are a legitimate ganja operator then you've probably discovered
that no commercial bank or credit union will allow you to open a business account with their
institution that's because financial institutions fare de-risking from their correspondent banks
it's a practice that has prevented ganja operators from being a part of the formal banking system
but with the us house of representatives passing a bill which prohibits penalties against ganja
service providers and businesses all that might change president of the ganga gurus
and producers association of Jamaica Richard dickie Crawford says Jamaica
shouldn't waste any time in passing a similar legislation it gives Jamaica the opening now
to follow suit and the opening and I'd like to see that happiness quickly as possible and we have
met we have met and in truth and in fact a couple weeks ago a team from the united states of America
came to Jamaica to say that this is on the way and met with our leaders and tried to explain to them
how important it would be to put in an application towards the safe banking act which Jamaica would
benefit from the bill exempts ganja business transactions from being considered proceeds
from illegal activity and subject to anti-money laundering laws it would also prohibit banking
regulators from asking banks to terminate a customer account unless there was a valid reason
aside from reputation risk in a statement this evening the cannabis licensing authority said
it is hopeful that this change in posture in the USA will translate into a relaxation of
the de-risking mechanisms being employed by our local banks in prohibiting the banking of funds
and the lack of provision of financing for cannabis businesses the statement went on
to say that this de-risking has impacted the rate at which Jamaica's ganja industry has
grown in the last five years therefore it is hoped that with this development in the USA
the effects of our local banks will result in greater movement of funds for investment provision
for loan facilities and ease of conducting online transactions with regards to trade in ganja but
this is just the beginning the bill had passed the u.s house of representatives before in 2019
only to die in the senate in the meantime the Jamaica bankers association has promised to
comment on the development however up to news time no response was received Andrew laidley tvj news
the world travel and tourism council wttc revealed that the travel industry was hit 18 times harder
by the kovit-19 pandemic than the financial crisis of 2008. wttc's president and ceo said
the industry employed 330 million people around the world before the pandemic shut down tourism
she announced that the pandemic has wiped out about 62 million of those jobs jamaica's tourism
minister edmund bartlett who is physically who is physically present at the event is scheduled
to participate in a panel discussion focused on multi-destinational tourism among other issues
we got onto currency trading the day ended with the greenback selling for a record 154.82 cents
against the jamaican dollar the canadian dollar closed at 125.70 the pound sterling is going for
215.77 while the euro ended the day at 190.50 the jrc index gained 235 points today while the junior
market index lost 23 points among the winners were cygnus credit investments consolidated bakeries
ssl venture capital caribbean assurance brokers and jamaican teas on the losing side kle group
knoxville express services caribbean flavors and fragrances caribbean cream and apple 8.75 percent
and that's it for the business day news from overseas when we return