While you weren't looking, the banks were hoping the wave of Bank Transfer Day was done, gone, over. People who had not switched over to local banks or credit unions would not have done so. Memories are short. Aren't they?
It won't be clear for several weeks how many deposits moved to credit unions—the member-owned cooperatives that can't sell stock and don't pay taxes—on Bank Transfer Day.
And the people who left aren't important anyway. Aren't they?
Credit unions held just 8% of federally insured deposits as of June 30, compared with 70% for banks that have assets of more than $10 billion.
In the middle of the activity, big banks kept a low profile. Rather than have soundbites which might play through the weekend.
Chase refused a request for comment. Bank of America spokeswoman Anne Pace said in an e-mail, “We don’t have anything to share at this point on account closures.”
However, there is an industry report which lets them know what the future could hold.
Everyone won't leave. Not gonna happen.
How much do banks stand to lose if everyone moved their money out of banks? About $7.5 trillion, counting total deposits for all banks, savings and loans. However, that’s if everyone hopped the BTD bandwagon.
But consider that in the five weeks leading up to the weekend – ever since the Sept. 29 announcement by Bank of America about a $5 debit-card fee, which has since been rescinded – more than $4.5 billion has shifted from big banks into the nation’s roughly 7,000 credit unions alone, according to the Credit Union National Association (CUNA).
Trend spotting is what's going on now. Take the advent of social media. Overlay the economy, Tuesday's election, Occupy Wall Street, and a perceived mood. And you get the attention required to get power to pay attention.
That study is all about Bank Brand Vulnerability. No shock which one is on top. You already know. But it suggests the Vulnerability's reach could last longer than banks hoped.
The study indicates that $399 billion in customer deposits are in jeopardy (“in play”) at those 10 banks, and $185 billion of that amount is projected to exit in the next year. Of the 10 banks included in the study, Bank of America has the highest brand vulnerability, while PNC has the lowest.
In addition, Deutsche Bank has been looking into which banks would have the most blowback from increasing hidden fees to make up for the shortfall of the debit card fiasco.
It took Bank Transfer Day to remind people they have options regarding banking. The surprise within the banking industry is that door didn't close the Monday after the event.