Move Your Money

Look at this map, printed in the New York Times, about the size of people’s banks across the country. Big cities on the coasts tend to have more deposits in big banks, and more rural areas in the middle of the country do more small banking.

In the accompanying article, Hannah Fairfield reports on the Move Your Money phenomenon:

For the last year, big banks have grabbed a huge share of the headlines, and of federal bailout funds. But they don’t – yet, at least – hold all of the nation’s money. Small banks still dominate huge swaths of the country and hold nearly half of bank deposits over all.

Still, tales of reckless lending and huge compensation for executives have led to major animosity toward major banks. A “move your money” groundswell was ignited in January by Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post and Rob Johnson, director of the Economic Policy Initiative at the Roosevelt Institute. Their hope is to spur reform at megabanks by encouraging people to move their money to smaller community banks and credit unions.

Their pleas may apply more to those who live on the East and West Coasts and in major cities, where large banks – defined as those holding more than $65 billion in assets – often have big market shares. But large banks also have a robust presence even in rural areas west of the Rockies, in part because Wells Fargo and Bank of America have roots in the pioneer West and have built community trust there.

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For a larger version of the map, click here.