Needham Bank (Cannabis Banking)

Needham Bank dates to 1892, when it opened at a desk in the Needham Public Library in Massachusetts, and it serves Greater Boston and MetroWest and has opened a location in Salem, New Hampshire. It is FDIC-insured. In April 2022 the bank announced it had completed the transfer of Eastern Bank's cannabis banking and money service businesses, hired the cannabis banking team and subleased Eastern's Medford branch so those customers could keep banking in the same place. Paul Evangelista, an executive vice president, joined with that team. The bank now says its cannabis program is staffed by more than 30 cannabis banking professionals.

The cannabis program serves dispensaries, cultivators, wholesalers, testing labs and CBD and hemp businesses. It offers deposit accounts, treasury and cash management covering receivables, payables, fraud prevention and accounting-software connections, national coin and currency services, and remote cash handling across the US. On the lending side it lists expansion capital, acquisition financing, refinancing of existing debt, debt syndication and standby letters of credit. Owners and employees can open personal checking, mortgages, credit cards and home equity lines through a bank-at-work program, all under one login.

Needham lists 21 states plus Washington, D.C. where it banks cannabis clients: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. It says it will work with clients in any market where cannabis is legal at least medically. Prospective clients use the inquiry form on the cannabis banking page. Needham does not publish cannabis account pricing and describes its compliance framework only as automated.