Liquidity & Balance Sheet
Total Deposits
Total deposits is the sum of all money customers have placed with a bank — checking, savings, money market, and time deposits — across domestic and foreign offices. It is a bank's primary and cheapest source of funding.
Formula
Schedule RC-E details deposits by type and ownership. The total includes noninterest-bearing demand deposits, interest-bearing transaction and savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, and time deposits (CDs), summed across all offices.
Why it matters
Deposits fund the loan book. A large, stable, low-cost deposit base is one of the most durable competitive advantages a bank can have — it lowers the cost of funds and reduces reliance on volatile wholesale borrowing. The 2023 regional-bank failures were fundamentally deposit-runs.
How to interpret
Size matters less than composition and stability. Read total deposits alongside the core-deposit ratio (how 'sticky' the base is), the uninsured deposit ratio (run risk), and the loan-to-deposit ratio (how fully the deposits are lent out).
Thresholds
| Range | Label | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Growing, core-funded | Strong | Stable core deposits expanding without heavy brokered/wholesale reliance. |
| Stable | Adequate | Flat deposit base roughly matching loan funding needs. |
| Declining | Watch | Deposit runoff may force costlier wholesale funding. |
| Sharp outflow | Concern | Rapid deposit flight is the classic precursor to a liquidity crisis. |
Worked example
Frequently asked
Are all deposits FDIC-insured?
No. FDIC insurance covers up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category. Balances above that are uninsured — see the uninsured deposit ratio, which became a closely watched run-risk signal in 2023.
What is the difference between core and brokered deposits?
Core deposits are stable relationship-based balances (checking, savings, small-time deposits). Brokered deposits are gathered through intermediaries chasing rate; they are faster to leave and treated as less stable by regulators.
Sources
- FFIEC Call Report Schedule RC-E (Deposit Liabilities)
- FFIEC Call Report Schedule RC (Balance Sheet)
See Total Deposits across 4,335 US banks
BankRegReports ranks every FDIC-insured institution by Total Deposits, refreshed quarterly within 48 hours of FFIEC release.