The Future of Payments in the Hemp Industry

Laws
January 2, 2025
David Obasiolu
David Obasiolu

Founder, CEO

The Future of Payments in the Hemp Industry: Rising Complexity and the Need for Smarter Compliance

The recent Senate draft bill tightening THC limits in hemp-derived products—from focusing solely on Delta-9 THC to now including total THC concentration (all THC variants combined) capped at 0.3%—has sent shockwaves through the industry. This shift will introduce significant compliance challenges for businesses, particularly in payments, where risk assessments rely heavily on regulatory clarity.

For years, hemp merchants have struggled with inconsistent banking relationships, sudden account closures, and opaque risk policies from payment providers. With these new changes, underwriting for hemp transactions will become even more confusing, as payment processors will need to assess a product’s total THC composition rather than simply verifying compliance with Delta-9 limits. This added complexity could lead to more payment restrictions, higher fees, and increased merchant risk—pushing many legitimate businesses into unstable financial relationships.

Bridging the Compliance Gap with Complex Compliance

Complex Compliance is designed to fill this emerging gap by automating and streamlining compliance for both payment providers and high-risk merchants. Our platform enables:

  • Automated Risk Assessment: Instantly verifying a merchant’s product compliance with the latest total THC regulations, ensuring payment providers have real-time compliance data.
  • Dynamic Underwriting: Continuously monitoring product formulations and flagging any regulatory risks before they become an issue.
  • Seamless Integration with Processors: Helping banks and payment processors navigate the evolving legal landscape with automated, transparent compliance reporting—reducing risk and improving approval rates for merchants.

As the regulatory environment tightens, payment providers that fail to adapt will face growing uncertainty. Complex Compliance offers a bridge between innovation and regulation, ensuring that high-risk merchants remain bankable while payment processors stay compliant. By leveraging automation and real-time compliance tracking, we eliminate the opacity that has long plagued payments in the hemp space.

The industry is evolving—Complex Compliance is here to make sure payments evolve with it.