AMP Bank has joined the growing list of ADIs whose deposit books are in decline, reporting that customer deposits fell 1.6 per cent in the March quarter. Industry-wide deposit inflows have slowed this year, as households cope with rising costs by eating into savings. After growing by 9.7 per cent in 2022, according to APRA data, retail bank deposit growth slowed to 0.4 per cent over the first two months of the year – an annualised rate of 2.4 per cent. APRA data show more than a dozen ADIs suffering deposit outflows since the start of the year, including ANZ, Australian Unity Bank, Auswide, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Bank of Sydney. AMP Bank is a curious inclusion in this list because it has been notable for high term deposit rates. According to comparison site Mozo it currently has the highest TD rate for a term under 12 months – 4.6 per cent for 11 months. But its at-call products are a different story. The bank reported that customer deposits declined by A$231 million to $14.2 billion in the March quarter. Term deposit balances grew by 1.5 per cent to $6.1 billion, while at-call deposits fell 3.8 per cent to $8.1 billion. The bank’s deposit-to-loan ratio fell from 87 per cent in the December quarter to 85 per cent in the March quarter, which is still very high compared with other banks. Commenting on the latest industry deposit data, Macquarie Securities said: “We expect an ongoing churn to more expensive deposits, unwinding some of the funding benefits that banks have enjoyed in recent periods. “With wholesale funding markets remaining tight and more expensive, we expect banks to compete for deposits.”