About half of those responding to a poll are worried about the security of their money in banks after the failure of several high-profile institutions, Gallup reported Thursday.
The polling company completed the survey after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed in March but before First Republic collapsed on Monday.
It found that 48% of adults said they are concerned about their money, including 19% who are “very” and 29% who are “moderately” worried. Another 30% said they are “not too worried,” and 20% are “not worried at all.”
Gallup attributed the findings to “turbulence in the U.S. banking system” not seen since the 2008 financial crisis when the Bush administration initiated bailouts of several failed banks.
“The latest readings are similar to those in 2008,” Gallup said, noting that 45% of adults were worried about their money that September after Lehman Brothers collapsed in the largest bankruptcy filing in the nation’s history.
That was the last time Gallup asked people how they felt about the safety of their money in banks.
According to the polling company, low-income adults and those affiliated with the party not controlling the White House — Democrats in 2008 and Republicans in 2023 — expressed the highest anxiety levels about the safety of their money.
In 2008, Gallup posed the question a second time three months later — in December after the election of Barack Obama — and found that worry levels had faded for Democrats while rising for Republicans.
The pollster noted that many adults may forget that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., a government agency, guarantees $250,000 of insurance per depositor at each insured bank for every deposit category.
“When banks fail, it is also unclear whether Americans’ heightened concern about their own deposits reflects a lack of awareness of the protections for small accounts provided by federal deposit insurance or their fear of a snowball effect that could bring down federal insurance as well,” Gallup said.
Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,013 adults April 3-25. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.