CanPay Debuts First Debit Payment Solution For The Cannabis Industry

LITTLETON, Colo., Nov. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CanPay, the first debit payment solution for the cannabis industry, today announced its availability to retailers and consumers in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. On the heels of eight states legalizing recreational or medicinal cannabis last week, CanPay is the only legitimate and stable debit payment solution for merchants in newly legalized and established cannabis markets, operating wherever compliant banking exists. CanPay is currently available in 15 retail locations across Washington and Colorado.

An unprecedented nine states voted for legalizing cannabis this election cycle; however, until the Federal Government changes its stance, the number of banks and credit unions willing to provide financial services to the industry will remain limited. This forces many merchants into a cash-only model that is a source of frustration, additional expense and safety concerns for themselves and their customers. As a result, CanPay partners exclusively with a multi-state network of financial institutions that are banking the cannabis industry under compliance programs meeting strict federal guidelines, ensuring the continued stability and legitimacy of CanPay's services.

With CanPay, cannabis retailers no longer need to hide the nature of their business in order to accept electronic payments, but can instead enjoy the legitimacy that comes from doing business in their own brand name; a feature that is unique to CanPay. Consumers prefer to pay with CanPay because it eliminates the need to carry large sums of cash into a store or use an ATM where the average fee is nearly $5 per cash withdrawal. Both merchants and consumers benefit from the ability of the consumer to decide what they are going to buy at checkout rather than predetermining their spending limit based on the cash in their wallet.

"CanPay is the future of payments for emerging industries, and is quickly becoming the preferred method of payment for cannabis businesses and banking institutions alike," said Dustin Eide, CEO of CanPay. "As more and more states move to legalize medical and recreational cannabis within their borders, the time has come for a legitimate payment solution. With regulations being determined across the newly approved states, we will be expanding CanPay into each market in partnership with those institutions offering compliant banking to cannabis retailers."

"CanPay offers us a quicker, more secure way of doing business while reducing the costs and hassles of cash," said Tim Cullen, Owner of Colorado Harvest Company in Denver, who has deployed CanPay in three retail locations throughout the state. "It's not an exaggeration to say that cannabis businesses face a huge array of challenges that other industries don't even need to consider. CanPay solves one of these pain points for us as a business, further enabling us to deliver on our commitment to a great in-store customer experience by offering a highly-sought after alternative to cash that is free for our customers to use."

To ensure privacy and security, all purchases are made using non-identifiable, single-use, and random payment tokens generated in the CanPay App. A consumer who wants to pay with CanPay simply downloads the CanPay App to their smart phone from www.CanPayApp.com, creates a CanPay account and links their checking account, and, upon approval, can begin paying at any participating retailer. The consumer logs into their CanPay app at the time of purchase and scans the random token into the retailer's point of sale device. Funds are electronically transferred directly from the consumer's checking account to the retailer's compliant bank account.

"We've partnered with CanPay because we see similar values between our approaches to helping cannabis retailers," said Sundie Seefried, President of Safe Harbor Private Banking, a division of Partner Colorado Credit Union. "We both hold transparency, security, and legitimacy as priorities in this emerging market. These businesspeople aren't criminals, but in some instances, they are still treated as such. CanPay and Safe Harbor are working together to change that."

CanPay is currently available in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, with plans to expand to other states and partner with local financial institutions who establish compliance programs for cannabis clients. The CanPay App is available for both Apple and Android users by visiting http://www.canpayapp.com while on a mobile device. Retailers can find out more by visiting the retailer section of the CanPay website.

About CanPay
CanPay is the first debit payment solution for the state regulated cannabis industry, currently serving businesses in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. Through the Closed-Banking Feedback Loop, CanPay partners with select financial institutions who have developed stable, compliant banking programs specific to the cannabis industry. By delivering a traditional and legitimate electronic payment solution to this growing yet highly-regulated industry, CanPay allows retailers and customers the convenience of a debit payment while mitigating risks and costs associated with cash transactions. To learn more about CanPay, visit http://www.canpaydebit.com.

Media Contact:
Grady Gausman
Barokas PR for CanPay
[email protected]
206-264-8220

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SOURCE CanPay

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http://www.canpaydebit.com