New weekly numbers on US deposits are in, showing Americans are now increasing the amount of cash they’re holding in the traditional banking system.
In the last week, depositors collectively added $86.58 billion, according to new numbers from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) system.
That’s a significant shift over the prior week, when depositors yanked about $30 billion out of their bank accounts.
US banks now have a total of $17.23 trillion in deposits, down from $18.10 trillion one year ago.
A new report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shows Americans withdrew $472 billion in the first quarter of 2023.
Most of the money came from uninsured deposits as customers reduced the risk of holding more than $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category.
Money market funds are on the receiving end of much of the cash that’s exited the banking system as investors seek safety and yield.
As the first quarter came to a close, assets held by money market mutual funds surged to $5.6 trillion according to Crane data. That’s the highest number on record.
On Wednesday, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon relayed an optimistic outlook on the US banks as a whole.
Compared to the 2008 financial meltdown, Dimon says thee’s “there’s nothing like that leverage” in the system this time around.
Dimon says he believes the banking system is healthy, although a “couple of banks” are “offsides” on their exposure to steep interest rate hikes.
“The private companies are actually in very good shape. The banking system is in pretty good shape.
You’ve seen regional banks just report very good numbers. The deposits didn’t run out like people are talking about.”
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