This is episode 51 of the Leaders in Payments podcast and our special guest this week is Tom Lineen, CEO of West Town Payments. 

Tom was born in Brooklyn NY, grew up in New Jersey  and attended North Carolina State University in Raleigh He has lived in multiple cities including LA, Charlotte, Tampa, New York City, and now to Park Cities Utah. 

Tom is the CEO West Town Payments which is a joint venture with West Town Bank and Trust. The bank has its roots in agriculture and as there’s a shift from tobacco to hemp the bank is there to help these merchant. So naturally hemp and CBD businesses are big opportunities for the bank from a deposit and treasury services perspective.  

West Town Payments now allows the bank to also offer merchant services to these hemp and CBD businesses as well as others in the bank’s portfolio. 

The bank takes a compliance-first approach to board these merchants and Tom explains some of the unique compliance factors in this space. 

This is a growing and interesting industry and is expected to reach $26.6B by 2025.