Banking Cannabis Without the Runaround | Union Bank & Trust at Lucky Leaf Expo

At Lucky Leaf Expo in Minneapolis, we sat down with Oliver Gutierrez-Garcia, Client Relationship Manager, and Paul Ranisate, AVP and Treasury Management Officer at Union Bank & Trust.

Between the two of them, there’s a deep understanding of what cannabis operators actually deal with day to day. Compliance. Risk. Moving money safely. And figuring it all out while the industry is still taking shape.

Oliver brings a background in branch operations, compliance, and risk management, helping businesses get set up the right way from the start. Paul works closely with operators on treasury management, helping them understand how to move money, protect their accounts, and build systems that actually scale.

This conversation goes beyond surface-level banking talk.

We get into:

•  Why most cannabis businesses are still learning as they go 
•  What treasury management actually means in real terms 
•  How Minnesota is shifting from early “dreamer” energy to real operators 
•  Why Union Bank & Trust chose to keep fees low and focus on long-term growth 

There’s also a bigger story here.

As a bank backed by labor unions in the Twin Cities, their approach is rooted in supporting working people and building something sustainable within cannabis.

If you’re operating in Minnesota or preparing to enter the space, this episode gives a clear, honest look at what banking can look like when it’s done right.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The thoughts, views, and opinions expressed on the Canic Connect Show belong solely to the individuals and do not reflect those of Canaconnect and its affiliates, sponsors, or partners. Can I Connect does not promote or facilitate any activity that violates state or federal regulations? Everything you hear here is strictly for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not legal advice. It is not financial guidance, and it's definitely not medical direction. Seriously, don't take our word for it. Even if someone on the mic sounds like they know what they're talking about, and they're probably crazy smart too. Regardless of how legit our guests may be, you should always do your own homework, consult with your attorney, and understand the risk you're taking before you do anything when it comes to cannabis. Our intention is to keep it real. If you've got a problem with anything we've said, take us to court.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

So Union Bank and Trust, uh Chief Deposit Officer Brandon Padgett, great guy. He's now got Oliver Martinez Garcia, Garcia Martinez on his team handling most of the cannabis banking. And then Paul is also helping with Union Bank. And Paul helps helps you figure out where you need to move your money. So if you got money, talk to Paul. If you need money, talk to talk to Oliver. Okay. And we're back. Welcome back to the Canada Connect Show, live from Lucky Leaf. Here we are. We're sitting down with a team from Union Bank and Trust. You may know Brandon Pagett, but today you're going to meet Paul Ranisat and Oliver Gutierrez Garcia. Both are employees at Union Bank and Trust. That's on Central Avenue, right uh northeast Minneapolis. I was there this week. It's a great bank, it's a phenomenal place, and they really serve the cannabis industry. You guys are doing it the right way, and that's why we love working with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yep, yeah, I mean we try. You know, there's a lot of complexity that comes with cannabis banking, but understanding and knowing what the regulations are at bankers is is key, right? Um, to make sure that we're bank is compliant, make sure operators are compliant, and just make sure that we are sounding we're sounding great as a company that we know what we're doing. We've been in the industry for 10 years in HAM. Yeah. So actually, actually, through the medical cannabis. Yep, yeah. So 10 years in medical cannabis with um the you know the two MSOs that came into Minnesota when we first started. Yep. We were one of the banks, Stearns was another one, and we're still building an industry and our name's out there, and we're excited for it. We want to build it right. That's why we're here. This is why we offer the fees that we offer, right? And it's it's a key thing that we want to do. We want to help build the industry, want to grow it correctly. Yeah, you've seen that a lot of states mess it up, do things incorrectly, and Minnesota has this issue, but as a whole, I think Minnesota's doing phenomenal, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:38

You know, and and generally speaking, if you're working with Union Bank and Trust, you may start working with Oliver to get onboarded, to get your paperwork in order. Once you've got money and you're figuring out what to do with it, you're gonna probably start talking to Paul. All right.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yeah. So in my role, the biggest thing is making sure that they are staying compliant within our rules and regulations that are set in place from the banking standpoint as well as the government state. Okay. So a lot of the times when people come to us after they do set their accounts up and want to speak in the sense of treasury management products, most of them don't even know what it is. Yeah, let's put it there. So that's that's the biggest thing. Um, so on the treasury management side, obviously, first and foremost, you have all your online banking, uh, being able to get your e-statements, uh, being able to look at your accounts through your online banking. But then going in a little bit deeper, we're a full uh we help with full product and money move. So that's ACH wire, as well as doing a lot on the side of uh protecting your accounts. Okay, so we have uh check positive pay, uh we have ACH Alert. Biggest thing with that is a lot of places now um still do checks. We recommend not doing that, but it's something uh businesses are still continuing to do. We're trying to get them away from that and go towards ACH because it is a lot safer route in the form of sending payments. Okay. A lot of our cannabis clients are doing that now. But again, on on my side of things, the job is to make sure that I'm making sure that their risk evaluation of their accounts, as well as how much they can handle, is all within that you know business realm and that sense of sending money out. Because if someone logs into their account and they don't know about it and they ACH all those funds out, it's it's gone. So it's like we want to make sure that that risk isn't too much for our call.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

And that's where I would step in to be able to give them that coaching and training on all of our products, how everything works, okay, making sure that's easy for them to do their uh I'd love to sit down with you.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Yeah. One of these days, yeah. How fast is the industry growing from a union bank and trust perspective?

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Yeah, no, that's a good question. Um, you know, when we first started getting into the adult rec and getting into these conventions and everything, um, you had a lot of dreamers, which is phenomenal. We love dreamers, they kind of give us a gear of how how excited the industry is. Um, but now we're getting to the place where we're moving from a phase one to a phase two in the industry. Okay, people are getting rounded up. There's we're getting their buildings selling product now. Um, so a key thing with that now is we're getting people that are really understanding the industry and really excited and want to keep growing with it. Yeah. And we're getting a lot of inquiries with that nowadays. Um, a lot of, like I said, a lot of streamers and kind of felt through with some of the operators, but now I'm getting operators that are really strong that know what what they're talking about or still trying to figure it out, but just need some guidance. And we're always happy to help with that. Um, but it's growing. I'm very excited for it. I gotta hire some more bankers to keep up with demand. But would you say that you see a a spectrum of size?

SPEAKER_03 5:41

I mean, granted, most of these companies are small and medium-sized companies, right? But within the within their ability to be well capitalized, are you do you see a spectrum of very small, small, small, medium?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, yeah. So right now it's ranging for my uh for at least our accounts. Um, I have operators that still don't have any money in their account, but they're they're working on getting it funded or working on getting bills paid, and that's their main focus. But I also have operators that have million dollars in their account that are growing in the industry that are open and operating. So I really have a big range of people that want to help out more and people that I either hand over to Paul to ensure that they're getting their money movement, making sure the vendors are being paid, yeah, just because they're starting to grow in and getting more locations opened up. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

So I mean, we also have clients too that range even upwards of 10 million. I mean, it we have very large clients also. So most of our clients that we do see, yes, are on the smaller side, but we still do take on those larger clients. Yeah, and the reason for that being and the reason they come to us is because with our bank, we are located in one you know branch in Minnesota and Minneapolis. Yeah, so it's like they really want to penetrate that market, they want to choose a bank that's going to help them do, and that's us. That's what we stand for. We want to make sure we're doing everything to help out the mom at pop shops. Yep. We've we've talked to a lot of other banks. We do see that they're still there for their clients, but there's a difference in the aspect of how they look at them. It's because they're cannabis related, then they priced out, right? They they have so much that I mean, some of them can range our from$100 to$500 a month.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

For us, it's 15 never been part of the plan.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Never are bought up. Not for us, not for us. I mean, we're in the industry, right? And we've talked about this plenty of times. You know, we were founded almost 50 years ago, be 50 years in two weeks from now. Yeah, congratulations. We're super excited for it. Getting a logo, new logo coming soon. Don't know if don't know if I get goal for that, by the way. But allegedly. But um, we're super excited for it. Um, the biggest reason why we're in the industry, right, is we're owned and operated by 24 labor unions um other twin cities. These are people that build roads, that keep the hospitals running, that keep water running in our city, electricity, a lot of manual, yeah, right. So that build a city and keep it running for us, right? And they see our board has seen the positive effects that THC or CBD have had on the members, just getting off oil because drinking, just ingesting things in their body that kills them slowly, right? Um, so our board's like, hey, we're gonna do in, we're gonna get in this industry, we're not gonna price gouge, we're gonna charge what we've currently charge all our clients because we want to build the industry and we want to help our members. And by building the industry, that's not by charging you two, three hundred dollars a month, and at the end of the day, you're paying what thirty thousand dollars in bank fees when that's another bank or that. I mean, sorry, that's another product, that's a new employee, that's marketing, that's a new location, that's a startup right there, you know. So we're in an industry to help people grow. If people don't know kind of what their footing is, we're more than happy to talk and and and break it down for them a bit further. But there is just a range of new, uh very experienced.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Yes, yes, uh the labor union side is something that I'm learning more about. How much experience did you two have with labor unions prior to joining Union Bank and Trust? Zero.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Zero. I same as well. Zero uh for cannabis or labor union. I had no idea about cannabis banking at all when I first started here. Um, I worked for Fortune 500 banks, okay. Um, and cannabis was a no-go. You cannot talk about it, you cannot touch it. That's not federally illegal. Federally illegal, do not touch it. You hear cannabis, don't talk to them. So, how does Union Bank get around that? So that's a great question. So, since Union Bank and Trust is a state chartered bank, okay, we are allowed to follow more of the Minnesota law, but still follow FDIC guidance. Okay. So that's how we're regulated, regulated by the state, not regulated by the U.S. government, but we still have to follow FDIC rules. Okay. So that's how we're able to be in the market as well and and have more wiggle room versus Fortune 500 banks. It makes sense. That makes sense. And the comp the complexity and the compliance reasons that go into it as well for Fortune 500 banks. Yes. You know, if they open that line of business to themselves, that's a hundred million dollars that they have to put in a new department, site visits, new BSA officers, new bankers. Um the scale that they operate. Yeah, the scale would just be so big it's for them, it wouldn't be worth the cost. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

So yeah, when I when I first started here, I actually have uh three years of uh cannabis experience, the banking science fit. Well, um, so for me, there's a lot I did. What I kind of do now, the risk evaluation of clients when they're getting onboarded, everything like that. That was that's been my job. Um, and I continue that now. But when I first started here and uh Oliver has kind of walked me through some of the product details and the costs and all this stuff, I literally thought he was joking. Like it just just because of my last bank. Oh I mean, yeah, they I mean they were charging exactly they were charging almost a thousand dollars a month for clients just to have an account within the cannabis side. And when he said$15 a month for this, we don't want to overcharge for uh treasury management services or anything like that. I was like, you this this is what a bank should say. Okay, it's not we we're not standing for bottom dollar, bring anyone and everyone in. Yeah, we want them to stand for what we see in the sense of the union space. Every single cannabis client we uh bring on, they actually have to sign a labor peace agreement. Okay. Um, so that just stipulates that after they hit that 10 uh employees or higher, yeah, they at least have to be able to get to top to something within the union.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

It's an option.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Um, we don't want to scare anyone away from that. That's not something that should scare you away, but it's just a great way to have better conversations and open conversations during easy. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Now, forgive me if you already explained this, but go through it again. Treasury management services. Who is a c who's an ideal client that needs treasury management services? Or is there a certain amount of uh experience or wealth that you gain when you start to need treasury well uh management services, or where does that start to come into play?

SPEAKER_02 11:52

To be honest, for me, I recommend treasury management services right off the bat, whether you're a mom and pop shop, you're a large conglomerate, whatever it may be, because with treasury management services, it makes your day-to-day financing and money movements so much easier. A lot of people are, like I said, still writing checks. Um, some people still don't even accept wires or checks, whatever it may or they accept checks, but not wires or ACH. That's something where I feel like now with the federal government, they no longer accept checks themselves. So now I feel people are gonna start coming into fruition with that and be like, hey, we need to start pushing to electronic payments as well. I see. And that's where I'd step in, and that's where I would have you know those talks and discussions with them and what they do with their money, how they're sending their money, how they're even getting their money. Because a lot of the times, like I said, we're we're one small bank in the sense of physical footprint, but we are we have clients all across the U race. Yeah. So for us, in that way, that's why our costs are also low on our treasury side. Okay, because we want it, we want banking to be more simple, Prem.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Yeah, it resonates with me.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we have we have uh cannabis clients that are two, three hours away from us, even farther away than them. And again, we just want to make it easier for them to be able to have you know just that uh you know operating account or just an account or cash and where they'll go and make their deposit close to them, but then they can pull all their funds right out of there from their online banking with union banking. Yes, still receiving that smaller uh fee or no fee at all, whatever measure.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Uh what are some of the improvements? What are some of the behind the scenes things that Union Bank and Trust is working on to be even more of a better solution for folks? So modern day solutions, right? There's there's work happening. Yep. Uh I'm I mean, what can you share?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah, no, um, I can give you a bit of insight on my side at least. Um, we are working towards getting a new system to help us um onboard our clients a little simpler via online, um, ensuring that you know the we get the information as quickly as they give it to us and try to get that ball rolling a little quicker for them. Right. Um that also comes with its own complexities, but of course, it's it's easier for the operators, especially when they're two or three hours away. They can't drive over to Minneapolis to get to sign some papers or even if they want to come meet the team or anything like that, you know? Yeah. Um, so this one's a little easier for them. Um, I know Paul has some projects that he's working on on his side as well, is just to make it more accessible for our clients and kind of just upgrade us from 1990 to 2020. There we go. You know, um a new Microsoft upgrade. Yeah, so me and Paul wear a lot of hats.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

A lot of PM as well as um the the biggest thing, too, that a lot of our clients are running into, obviously, uh, is the payment solution side as well. Yeah, being able to use your debit cards, credit cards, all that, and how that kind of works with adult recreation compared to you know other parts within the cannabis industry. And for us, we're really happy we partnered with Evolve. Um they are very knowledgeable when it comes to that kind of stuff, uh, in the sense of doing doing payments, ATMs, cashless ATMs, everything like that. Yeah, being able to have that partnership with them and doing what's best for our clients, it's made a huge difference. Congratulations, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Let's go. Yes, we're very happy. Don Raleigh III, everybody. Shout out to Don over at Evolve. Uh, you know, he works really hard to understand the marketplace and and what's compli what's legal and what's compliant. Exactly. You know, he's got a really good head on his shoulders when it comes to being a straight shooter, you know, because there is a lot of zigzag that happens in how cash moves in this industry, especially in payment processing, you know. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Yeah, because once the the thing too is once you get blacklisted, if like they if they find out you're using credit cards and stuff like that, once you get blacklisted, you can no longer use uh cashless ATMs and no longer use any of your payment processing that's up at your desk. There's a lot of background knowledge that you need before you truly do think, oh, hey, I'm just gonna step into this thinking it's all easy and whatever. Maybe reach out to your bank, really have those conversations. Yeah, be able to have them connect you with the right people so you can start on a D. Okay. Wow. And how long have you guys been working with Evolve officially? Uh it's been a little under a year now. A little under a year. Yep. Okay, great. Yeah, we already have a couple clients that are set up with them.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

Good.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Say we love them, they have nothing bad to say. Like I said, we have a great partnership with them, like having good conversations.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Yeah. Uh Evolve payment. You can go check them out online. Uh, I mean, new to cannabis banking when you started, yeah, a little bit of experience. Are you feeling the momentum? Are you seeing it here at Lucky Leaf? Does it how are the conversations going at the booth?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Um, honestly, it's it's going really good. Um, 50% of everyone that's coming up to the booths has our are prior are existing clients already. Okay. So just kind of catching up with them. But I've been getting a lot of like referrals like, hey, one of your one of your uh clients actually referred me over to you guys. I just got one uh clients three hours north, but they're coming over to us just because they had a good experience with their other partner. Uh so just just building up the industry that way.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

But word of mouth is a big part of customer acquisition in banking. Huge. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Well, for us too. It's we're we don't again, we're a smaller bank, so it's not like we're throwing marketing up on TVs, radios, all that. Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Yeah, you're not on 394, 493.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Exactly. Yes. Uh it's the difference with us is we really want to come to a lot of these expos and make ourselves be seen. Yeah, because it's a lot better with that face-to-face interaction and more customer serviced experience. That's what our bank is about. Okay. Our doors are always open. We love when people come in and want to have a conversation with us. Yeah. A little deeper dive into that financial side of it all.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

It's a it's a walk in the it's a blast from the past when you walk into Union Bank.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

It is. It is. But I love it. I feel like you get that warm feeling of, hey, I'm going into a bank and I can actually just go to talk to my banker. There's like real bankers there.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

There's real people.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

It's not, oh, well, you gotta wait, you gotta let's let's hear the screen, you can talk to this person over the screen. And it's like, sure, that's that's great, but talking to someone face to face, we're human, right? Yeah, you want to have that interaction.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah, you still have the you know, those banks where you're on the phone with customer service for an hour, two hours, and I worked at big banks like that. That's it's hard. You put all that effort into building that relationship with the client, and then they leave because not on your own fault, but because they can't get a hold of the right people.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

I had a uh late fee on my best buy card on accident. I couldn't get a hold of anyone at Citibank. I finally hit the buttons in the right order that they just waved the late fee. Oh no, kidding. Because they they they didn't want to have that it's cheaper for them to waive the late fee than to have somebody out of the line. It's interesting, man.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

And I banks are like that, you know, they're all going towards the AI, AI is moving upwards, right? Uh so where you're like, oh, you tell you tell it what to do over the phone, it's gonna try to direct you the best way. But yeah, once again, you're dealing with a robot, you're not dealing with the with a person. You call our bank, someone answers, and it's someone that can help you, you know, or not, if not help you guide you to the correct person.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah, we have all of our direct lines as well as our cell phone numbers on all of our uh our uh email, uh signature lines on our business cards, every K. So we want to try and make sure that they understand we're here for them. Yeah, and that whenever they need us, we'll make sure that exactly.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Any any calls that come up to customer service gets directly routed to my plan as well. My personal fault, just to ensure that we're not missing any calls, maybe sure that we're contacting our clients when they're calling us to ensure that we're helping them the best we can.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

I really like the culture at UD Bank and Trust. And and that's why that's why I've sought out Brandon and the entire team and and and thanks to Sean. Sean came to the Lucky Leap After Party 2045. Yeah, Sean. Tonight we're gonna rip it up though, guys. Tonight is it gonna be a dude.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Yeah, right. Brandon and Sean have changed the way that that bank is being are moving forward. Yeah, they really have just the atmosphere, the culture they create. It just grows not for just the employees, but for clients that are coming in and the conversations that they have. It's different to have a client just coming back, hey, can I speak to your CEO? Your CEO walks right out the door, hey, how you don't get that. Don't get that personal experience. I can see it. And that's exactly what they want to do.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

Yeah, amazing. So, folks that want to get in touch with Union Bank and Trust, they want to set up an account. Maybe they're a customer, but let's focus on the people that aren't customers. What's the best way to get in touch?

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Uh, best way to get in touch would be yeah, uh either LinkedIn or email. Um, my LinkedIn is Oliver Gutierrez Garcia. Uh my email is O-G-U-T-I-E-R-R-E-Z, G-A-R-C-I-A at U B T M N. And you guys have a great website. You got cannabis right on the front page. Yep. Uh if you go to our website, uh uh ubtmn.com, there's a contact form, and all of us in customer service get that.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So it also shows our whole uh list of executives, the team, everything like that, and how to get hold of each and every one of them. And at the bottom, we do have a customer service number. Okay, again, does not go to a customer service line out of the abyss, goes directly to him and his team right.

SPEAKER_03 21:00

You guys are doing great work. I know you're busy. I hope you stay busy. I hope it continues to grow for me, for you, for all of us in the industry. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited for it. Good to see you. Thank you so much, we got away. Yeah, I appreciate it all. Nice to see you. Yeah, you too. That's uni making trust.