By Harry Robertson
LONDON (Reuters) - Investors have moved $538 billion into cash funds over the past eight weeks as they pulled money out of bank deposits after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, according to Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) figures released on Friday.
BofA, citing EPFR data, said investors put $51.6 billion into money market funds in the week to Wednesday as the outsized flows continued.
The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and another mid-sized lender called Signature Bank (OTC:SBNY) sent shockwaves through markets in the middle of March, and called into question the safety of U.S. bank deposits.
BofA's analysts said the catalyst for the big move into cash had been $500 billion in outflows from commercial bank deposits over the past five weeks. Total bank deposits stand at around $17.2 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data.
Money market funds (MMFs) are mutual funds that invest in highly liquid - that is, easy to buy and sell - short-term debt products, such as those issued by governments or highly rated companies. Companies and investors see them as effectively equivalent to cash.
Central bank interest hikes have pushed up the yields on short-dated debt and MMFs, making them look more attractive to investors.
"We're in a nice yield environment," said Stephen Brewer, head of liquidity sales at Pictet Asset Management.
"And now everyone's looking at the diversification, capital preservation, and liquidity benefits."
Investors have also put huge sums of money into government bonds, partly because of their safety, but also because they think central banks will not be able to raise interest rates as high as previously expected. Rising interest rates causes bond prices to fall.
BofA said $65 billion has flowed into Treasury funds this year, in the best start to a year ever recorded. It said $2.3 billion flowed into bonds in the week to Wednesday, in a third straight week of inflows.
A month after the initial burst of jitters, many investors are increasingly confident that the banking problems have been contained.
BofA said $3.9 billion flowed into stocks in the week to Wednesday, and $500 million went into gold funds.