Some of the bank-deposit moves may be year-end balance- sheet management by corporate customers, according to Chessen and strategists including Alex Roever at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp.’s Brian Smedley. Rajappa said it’s too early to say for sure what caused the drain of deposits.

Calendar-Related

The 25 largest banks lost almost $53 billion of deposits once seasonal variations are taken into account, according to the Fed data released Jan. 18. That shows some of the decline is tied to “calendar-related effects,” Roever said.

“You see a run-up in deposits at year-end and then a draw- down after the start of the year,” he said in a phone interview. The cash isn’t going into investments one would expect if it were coming from FDIC-insured accounts, such as Treasury or government-related money-market funds, he said.

“If people were shifting out of bank deposits and looking for a government-type return we’d see more growth in Treasury funds,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to be happening.”

Treasuries had declined 0.31 percent this month through yesterday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch data show.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed yesterday for the fifth straight session and has gained 4.7 percent in 2013. Global investors are the most bullish on stocks in at least 3 1/2 years, with close to two-thirds planning to boost equity holdings within six months, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Profit Margins

The outflow follows a year in which total deposits from all sources and regions surged as much as 8 percent at the nation’s five biggest lenders, with the fastest pace set by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. and Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp. Wells Fargo had $945.7 billion in core deposits at year-end. U.S. Bancorp reported $249.2 billion of deposits.

JPMorgan, ranked first by deposits, reported a 6 percent rise for 2012 to $1.19 trillion. Bank of America, ranked second by assets and based in Charlotte, North Carolina, boosted deposits 7 percent to $1.11 trillion, the same pace as New York-based Citigroup Inc., with $930.6 billion at year-end.