Banks in states where marijuana remains illegal are becoming places where small industries spawned by the drug’s legalization elsewhere look to stash their cash, a top security official at Trustmark Bank said Wednesday.

The Mississippi-based bank is trying to avoid that kind of attention, and is developing risk assessment policies “in the event we have someone approach us that this is their business,” Trustmark security chief Doug Winstead told the Vicksburg Lions Club. A petition drive underway in the state by pro-legalization advocates didn’t play so much a role in the decision as a growing buzz in banking circles, Winstead said.

“We’re just going ahead of the game, so to speak, and having the measures in place,” Winstead said. “It’s just the number of states involved, knowing they’re a cash-flux business. They’ve got to have a place to put this cash in order to run a business.”

As of Jan. 1, 27 states and the District of Columbia have either legalized medical marijuana, decriminalized possession of the drug, or both. A group called Mississippi for Cannabis is in the process of collecting signatures to place a measure on the November 2016 ballot that would do both if voters approve. The group needs at least 106,165 people to sign up, with equal distribution of those signatures across the state’s five congressional districts.

Industries such as food catering that can make money off the substance’s legal status in states like Colorado and Washington have cropped up, Winstead said. Both states allow private possession up to 1 ounce.

In one instance, Winstead said, a catering business that shopped for a bank to deposit $73,000 in cash was found to be deriving their profits from pot parties. Banks in states where possessing the drug is still completely illegal risk exposure to charges of aiding and abetting the distribution of the drug and money laundering if such funds are accepted.

“People that deal in it do so with cash — lots of cash,” Winstead said.

In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, which listed marijuana as a Schedule I drug. Since then, it has been illegal to manufacture, distribute or possess marijuana in the United States, according to the federal government.

In August 2013, the U.S. Justice Department said it wouldn’t challenge Colorado or other states with laws legalizing recreational marijuana. Instead, federal officials decided to focus on stopping drug trafficking and keeping marijuana away from children.

Forms of identity theft remains the banking industry’s other pressing security issue, Winstead said. Protecting credit card and Social Security numbers keeping track of paper bank statements is a must, he said.

“Every minute, according to the government statistics, 19 people become a victim of identity theft,” he said. “In two minutes’ time, this whole room is toast, when you think about it from that perspective.”

“Have all the security features on your computer that you can set,” he said. “Make sure your firewalls are up, security alerts are on high. And anything from a foreign entity is fake. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”