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With the US Federal Reserve keeping interest rates pinned around zero for most of the past 15 years, depositors grew resigned to earning virtually nothing on their cash, whether it was sitting in a bank or a money-market fund. A turning point came in the spring. Thanks to the Fed’s inflation-fighting interest-rate hikes, people started to see they could earn 4% or more on their money. The regional bank crisis that began with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March served as another wake-up call. “If you maintain idle balances at a bank, that’s an unsecured risk that you’re not getting compensated for,” says Barclays Plc strategist Joseph Abate. “People became more aware in March after SVB, which is when the deposit awakening kicked off.”