The Dynamics of Retail Deposit Balances

From Bronson Argyle, Benjamin Iverson, Jason D. Kotter, Taylor D. Nadauld & Christopher Palmer

We investigate the dynamics of household deposits using account-level data from 12 million accounts across 154 U.S. credit unions. Significant skewness in the retail deposit distribution–with 10% of depositors controlling 70% of total deposits–means large-balance accounts drive aggregate retail deposit flows. On average, high-balance accounts become large after significant one-time inflows and are more likely to experience large, idiosyncratic drawdowns. Unlike low-balance households, high-balance retail depositors are not sensitive to interest rate shocks. Additional evidence suggests that overall retail deposit stickiness is driven by high-balance accounts that are used as medium-run liquidity stores rather than for interest income.

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