ig US financial groups Charles Schwab, State Street and M&T suffered almost $60bn in combined bank deposit outflows in the first quarter as customers continued to move their money in search of higher returns.
The deposit flight has been turbocharged by the collapse last month of Silicon Valley Bank and two other US lenders, with cash moving out of bank accounts at a pace not seen since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
In a fresh sign of the threat to traditional banks, Apple and Goldman Sachs on Monday announced the launch of a new savings account in the US that will pay a market-leading 4.15 per cent a year.
US savers have been yanking cash out of low-yielding bank accounts and ploughing it into alternative products such as money market funds or Treasury bills that pay better returns, allowing them to take advantage of the sharp interest rate rises implemented by the Federal Reserve. The average US bank account savings rate is just 0.37 per cent, according to government data, versus the Fed’s benchmark rate of 4.75 per cent to 5 per cent.