Friday'​s Wall Street Journal wrote on, "The $​42 Billion Question: Why Aren'​t Americans Ditching Big Banks?" The article says, "Americans are missing out on billions of dollars in interest by keeping their savings at the biggest U.​S. banks. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to their highest level since early 2008.... Yet the biggest commercial banks are still paying peanuts to savers. In theory, savers could have earned $​42 billion more in interest in the third quarter if they moved their money out of the five largest U.​S. banks by deposits to the five highest-​yield savings accounts -- none of which are offered by the big banks -- according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of S&​P Global Market Intelligence data." It explains, "The reality is complicated. The five banks collectively made far less than $​42 billion in profit in the third quarter. And if savers were to move their money en masse, banks offering high-​yield accounts could lower their rates. The five banks -- Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., U.​S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. -- paid an average of 0.​4% interest on consumer deposits in savings and money-​market accounts during the quarter, according to S&​P Global. The five highest-​yielding savings accounts paid an average of 2.​14% during the same period, according to data from Bankrate.​com. The five banks collectively hold about half of all the money kept at U.​S. commercial banks in savings and money-​market accounts tracked by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That share has held steady despite the availability of higher rates elsewhere." The Journal continues, "Since the start of 2019, Americans have lost out on at least $​291 billion in interest by keeping their savings in the five biggest banks. That total balloons to $​603 billion when going back to 2014, when the FDIC started tracking consumer deposits in money-​market and other savings accounts. And U.​S. savers have likely missed out on much more than $​600 billion because the average rate the five biggest banks have paid over the past eight years, 0.​24%, includes higher-​yielding money-​market accounts and some business accounts. Traditional savings accounts paid an average rate of 0.​02% at the five largest banks during that period. The FDIC doesn'​t separate traditional savings and money-​market deposits in its record-​keeping." They ask, "`​Why haven'​t savers moved more of their money? Opening a new bank account is time consuming, said Gary Zimmerman, CEO of MaxMyInterest.... Some customers aren'​t aware of how much money they could make by switching, he said, and others just don'​t care.... People also are willing to pay for convenience and simplicity, said Nathan Stovall, a principal analyst for financial sector data at S&​P Global Market Intelligence. Banks refer to customers who shop around for higher savings rates as '​hot money,' Mr. Stovall said. They have invested billions of dollars into developing user-​friendly technology and consumer-​banking services, but that is still a fraction of what they would have to pay in interest were they to raise rates instead."

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