Nearly $120 Billion of Deposits Were Pulled From Small Banks as Silicon Valley Failed

Customers of small U.S. banks pulled a record $119.9 billion of deposits in the seven days ending March 15, data released by the Federal Reserve showed Friday.

The decline in deposits at small U.S. banks was the largest in records going back to 1973.

That figure is seasonally adjusted. On a not-seasonally adjusted basis, small banks lost $107.8 billion.

Much of those deposits went to large banks. These saw deposits rise by $66.7 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis and $119.8 billion before seasonal adjustment.

On the whole, deposits at commercial banks in the U.S. fell by a seasonally adjusted $98.4 billion, according to the Fed data. Not seasonally adjusted, the decline was $52.8 billion.

The data cover the seven days that ended on Wednesday, March 15.

Large banks are defined as the top 25 domestically chartered commercial banks, ranked by domestic assets. So Silicon Valley Bank, which was the 18th largest bank by assets, would be counted among the large banks that, as a group, gained deposits. In other words, the decline in deposits among small banks does not include deposits that were withdrawn from Silicon Valley Bank.