North Bay Credit Union
“Established in 1948, North Bay Credit Union is the oldest credit union in Sonoma County and was originally called Sonoma County Grange Credit Union. It was founded by members of Sonoma County Granges who pooled their savings to help new farmers who had no access to bank credit so they could buy land and equipment to start their own farming operations. In 2017, we changed our name to North Bay Credit Union to better reflect who we now serve. Over the years, we expanded our membership to include all residents of Sonoma County, and in 2020 we began serving everyone who lives, works or worships in Marin, Solano and Napa counties.”
- website: https://www.northbaycu.com/
Cannabis Banking Services
“Since 2017, North Bay Credit Union (NBCU), and its cannabis banking subsidiary, Greenbax Marketplace Inc., have been advocates and trusted partners for the Cannabis Industry. Greenbax Marketplace provides cannabis and CBD businesses with banking solutions that are affordable and compliant.”
States Served:
- Nationwide
Official cannabis banking page: https://www.northbaycu.com/accounts/cannabis-accounts.html
Media coverage:
- North Bay Business Journal: For North Bay Credit Union CEO, going against the grain on cannabis banking is OK with him
The North Bay Credit Union CEO Chris Call rocked the financial world by allowing the cannabis industry to open accounts. With marijuana still a federally illegal drug, bankers routinely shy away from taking in cannabis industry cash. Not Call. He believes in helping legitimize this sector of the business community that is operating legally in California. “We could grow exponentially if regulators would allow us to. They have put stipulations on how much we can grow and how fast we can grow,” Call said. The credit union, which came into being in 1948, is the oldest such institution in Sonoma County. In 2020 it also began serving anyone who lives or works in Marin, Solano and Napa counties. Call expects net income for the credit union this year to be approximately $2 million. Besides wanting regulators to loosen their grip on the banking world, the 62-year-old Call has other ideas about his industry, which he shares below with the North Bay Business Journal.
- PYMNTS: CUSO HigherGrowth to Enable Cannabis Business Banking Services
California’s North Bay Credit Union has collaborated with Austin Capital Trust Company and Silicon Valley FinTech MRBD to form the credit union service organization (CUSO) HigherGrowth, the Credit Union Times reported. The new CUSO, in development for more than two years, will enable credit unions and community banks to offer financial services to cannabis companies without these firms having to meet the strict federal and state compliance mandates to have a business bank account, according to the report. “We’ve been doing cannabis banking since 2017 and developed quite a robust infrastructure of compliance with personnel and technology,” North Bay President and CEO Chris Call said in the report. “We’ve got the capacity to really expand what we’re doing beyond our geographical footprint. And it’s just a matter of having the right vehicle to be able to offer those services to other institutions that are looking to bring on cannabis deposits. And that’s why we formed HigherGrowth to offer the infrastructure and the expertise that we’ve developed over the past four years.”
Bank Health Rating
DepositAccounts.com Rating: link
- DepositAccounts considers several health grade components:
- Texas Ratio (measuring bank credit risk);
- Texas Ratio trend;
- Deposit growth;
- Capitalization (difference between bank assets and liabilities).