To the Editor:

I spent decades as a nurse in north Louisiana. I’ve seen what happens when people in rural communities lose access to basic services — whether it’s a hospital closing or a bank pulling out. Things that seem like faraway policy decisions have a way of hitting close to home.

That’s why I’ve been paying attention to what’s happening in Washington with digital finance regulation. I’ll be honest — I’m not a finance person. But when someone explains it simply, the problem is pretty clear.

Tech companies are now offering digital money accounts that pay returns to attract your savings — just like a bank would. But unlike your local bank, they don’t have to follow the same rules, carry the same protections, or answer to the same regulators. A law passed last year was supposed to prevent this, but it left a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. These companies can still pay out returns through affiliates and partner platforms, just under a different label.

The people who study this say it could pull over a trillion dollars out of community banks across the country. In places like north Louisiana, community banks are often the only game in town. They’re the ones making small business loans, helping families finance a home, working with farmers between harvests. When their deposits walk out the door, that lending stops.

In nursing, we had a practice: you treat the patient for the symptom they are presenting with. If a tech product is built to hold your savings and pay you a return, it’s acting like a bank. It should be treated like one.

Senator Kennedy is on the Senate committee that’s voting on this right now. I hope he closes the loophole and stands up for the community banks that have always stood up for us.

Sincerely,

Lu Jones