DENVER, Jan. 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SHF Holdings, Inc., d/b/a Safe Harbor (the "Company" or "Safe Harbor") (NASDAQ:SHFS), a leading fintech platform serving the banking, lending, and financial services needs of the regulated cannabis and hemp industries, announced a strategic expansion of its payments solutions portfolio through partnerships with Lüt and GreenCard. These additions bring new stability, reliability and transparency to digital payments, one of the sector's most complex issues in cannabis finance.

"By offering ACH debit, cashless ATM, and closed-loop payment systems, we now support every major way customers pay for cannabis," said Terry Mendez, CEO of Safe Harbor. "Our focus is solving real operational challenges for cannabis businesses. We've built the most complete, compliant payments ecosystem in the industry by asking: what do operators actually need? The answer is flexibility, redundancy, and reliability at every transaction point. Lüt and GreenCard help our clients build stability across the supply chain."

Two New Tools, One Unified Goal: Operational Resilience

Lüt offers a wallet-based, closed-loop payment system that gives consumers a seamless retail checkout experience while helping to insulate operators from processing downtime. Its pre-funded wallet model is meant to ensure guaranteed funds and uninterrupted payment flow—critical during high-traffic periods or when other systems fail. Lüt also includes built-in loyalty features for customers and incentive tools for dispensary staff, driving both engagement and conversion.

"Safe Harbor and Lüt both share a compliance-first philosophy and a long-term view of building sustainable financial infrastructure for regulated industries," said Michael Andrud, CEO of Lüt. "This partnership with Safe Harbor signals to the banking industry that compliant, guaranteed-funds digital payments for high-risk industries are operational, scalable, and built to support long-term growth."

Greencard delivers end-to-end payment infrastructure for vertically integrated cannabis operations, unifying retail, delivery, e-commerce, and wholesale transactions on a single platform. Embedded mobile payments integrate directly with existing POS systems, while the B2B suite transforms 14-day check cycles into next-day ACH settlement with real-time reporting [for] every invoice.

"We built Greencard for operators running cultivation, manufacturing, and retail under one roof who need one platform across their entire operation," said Greencard CEO Luke Blackamore. "With Safe Harbor's banking infrastructure behind us, we're giving cannabis businesses the same payment capabilities that mainstream industries take for granted."

Supporting Risk Management

The cannabis industry continues to face systemic challenges in accessing stable financial infrastructure, with operators heavily reliant on ACH debit, merchant processing solutions, and manual cash handling—each of which have vulnerabilities, ranging from outages to changes in regulatory policies. Safe Harbor's payments solutions portfolio addresses this risk head-on by offering multiple, independent payment options, thereby giving clients flexibility and continuity even during disruptions.

Mendez added, "No cannabis business should be vulnerable because one payment method goes offline. Redundancy is responsible, and we're making it accessible through tools that are tested, compliant, and operationally sound."

A Growing Ecosystem of Operator-Centric Services

Lüt and Greencard are joining large, long-standing industry pay-by-bank platforms like CanPay in Safe Harbor's payment-processing portfolio.

Rounding out the suite to ensure every client payment need can be covered, Vector Payments and GreenLink Merchants support Safe Harbor clients with outstanding service.

These partners collectively offer one of the most comprehensive lineups of cannabis-compliant payment options available, covering ACH, closed-loop, and compliant alternatives to traditional merchant processing.

This expansion in payment options follows the recent launch of insurance and payroll services for Safe Harbor clients as part of the Company's broader effort to build a full-service financial platform for the cannabis industry. Additional services are expected to be released in the months ahead.

About Safe Harbor

Safe Harbor is a cannabis-exclusive financial platform delivering smarter banking, lending, payments and business services tailored to how the cannabis industry actually operates. As one of the original pioneers of compliant financial operations support and cannabis banking consulting in the U.S., Safe Harbor has facilitated more than $26 billion in cannabis-related transactions across 41 states and territories. Through its proprietary Cannabis Banking Solutions™ Platform and network of regulated financial institution partners, Safe Harbor empowers cannabis operators to gain clarity, control and confidence in their financial operations. From daily banking to long-term growth, Safe Harbor provides real solutions and personal support — built exclusively for cannabis. Safe Harbor is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by our partner financial institutions. For more information, visit shfinancial.org.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain information contained in this press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements other than statements of historical facts included herein may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to Safe Harbor's ability to satisfy the required conditions to utilize its equity line of credit (the "ELOC"); market conditions that may impact Safe Harbor's ability to access the ELOC on acceptable terms or at all; the possibility that the ELOC may not be fully utilized; expected use of proceeds from the ELOC; trends in the cannabis industry, including proposed changes in U.S and state laws, rules, regulations and guidance relating to Safe Harbor's services; Safe Harbor's growth prospects and Safe Harbor's market size; Safe Harbor's projected financial and operational performance, including relative to its competitors and historical performance; success or viability of new product and service offerings Safe Harbor may introduce in the future; the impact volatility in the capital markets, which may adversely affect the price of Safe Harbor's securities; the outcome of any legal proceedings that have been or may be brought by or against Safe Harbor; and other statements regarding Safe Harbor's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intends," "outlook," "may," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would," and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in Safe Harbor's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Safe Harbor undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

Safe Harbor Investor Relations Contact:

ir@SHFinancial.org

Safe Harbor Media Relations Contact:

safeharbor@kcsa.com

Safe Harbor Expands Payments Solutions Portfolio to Help Cannabis Operators Cut Cash, Boost Stability