Alignable's report showed 17% of the businesses had already shifted their funds "with many more still considering their next move."

Among those that shifted deposits, credit unions showed a strong gain. The share of money-moving respondents having deposits in credit unions rose from 17% in February to 28% in March. The share among banks fell from 79% in February to 66% in March. The share for online financial institutions rose from 4% in February to 6% in March.

Businesses "affected most by banking instability are leaving major national banks behind, and going hyper-local by moving funds into their hometown credit unions," the report said.

Comments from survey respondents included:

• "I'm quite nervous about other, very possible big bank closures."
• "Shifted from a major national bank, because I feel the service is better at my local credit union and it's member-owned."
• "I feel my local credit union is more personal, more secure. And I suffered from a lack of client relations at my old, big bank."
• "I don't trust the banks. I trust my local credit union members and my community more."

Jason Beckett

The report quoted Jason "JB" Beckett, a financial advisor in the Alignable network and founder/managing partner of the Beckett Financial Group of West Columbia, S.C., who said many people prefer credit unions "because they're member-owned, and others because of their community connection."

"We see many clients utilize credit unions for loans," Beckett said. "Some also feel they can get better service with a smaller hometown entity like a credit union than a national bank."

A major factor in the bank runs at the failed banks was their high percentages of uninsured deposits: 94% at Silicon Valley and 90% at Signature. Regulators ended up promising to insure all those deposits past the $250,000-per-account limit. NCUA data showed credit unions had 8.9% of the value of their deposits uninsured as of Dec. 31, and the uninsured rate was less than 2.8% at most credit unions.

A separate survey by Alignable showed that fears of a recession have increased amid the current banking turmoil, cumulative inflationary pressures and rising interest rates.

The poll conducted March 2-30 of 3,828 small business owners found 60% thought a recession is occurring or will occur later this year, up from 55% in February. The share of respondents thinking a recession was already here was 33%, up from 27% in February.

Alignable is on online referral network for small businesses with more than eight million members across North America.