Hundreds of billions of dollars in deposits has left America’s four biggest banks in the past year, according to new data from S&P Global.
In a new market report, S&P analysts the entire US banking industry has lost a total of $872 billion in a year that witnessed the collapse of three large American banks.
Out of the $872 billion in deposits that left the industry year over year, S&P says approximately 30% – representing $260 billion – exited JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citi.
When looking at the 15 largest US banks by deposits, Charles Schwab witnessed the largest level of outflows.
“Among the top 15 deposit holders, Charles Schwab Corp. reported the largest year-over-year decrease in deposits of 31.1% to $304.79 billion, attributable mostly to outflows from brokerage accounts.”
The deposit losses for all US banks represent a 4% decline year over year.
S&P also says that US banks have been rapidly lowering their branch footprint, opting to heavily digitize their systems while cutting costs. As of June of this year, the number of physical branches in America were 77,796, compared to 79,172 the year prior and 96,339 in 2013.
High profile investor and venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary recently predicted a mass consolidation of US regional banks driven by the acceleration in deposit flight and a nervousness to trust the system in general.
In a new Fox News interview, the Shark Tank star says the number of regional banks in the US will probably drop by half in the coming years.
“We have 4,100 regional banks in America. Probably in the next three years, it will be down to 2,000. They’re going to consolidate…
People are very nervous about putting their money in the bank because if another one fails and you have your cash in there, right now you’re only guaranteed for $250,000.”
