The flood of money moving out of U.S. banks when unlimited Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage expired at the start of this year doesn't seem to have materialized. At the end of 2012, an estimated $1.5 trillion held in non-interest bearing bank accounts lost FDIC coverage when a financial crisis program, the Transaction Account Guarantee program (TAG), expired and FDIC insurance reverted to a maximum of $250,000. Much of the newly uninsured money was expected to shift from banks to other short-term investment products, like money-market funds, but in fact, banks saw more money coming in than going out late last year.

"What was expected was that when deposit insurance was scaled back to $250,000, there would be hundreds of billions flowing out of banks," Anthony Carfang, a partner at consultancy Treasury Strategies, said during a webcast earlier this month. Instead, "during the fourth quarter of 2012 leading up to the Dec. 31 expiration, deposits at U.S. banks actually increased," he said.

Federal Reserve data show bank deposits grew $357 billion, or 4%, during the fourth quarter.