Last week, the Federal Reserve officially kicked off the interest rate cut cycle with a 50 basis point reduction.

As the era of "high interest rates" in the United States draws to a close, some media have discovered that the U.S. banking industry has reaped a "windfall" of $1 trillion over the past two and a half years.

According to an analysis by the Financial Times of data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the profits of more than 4,000 banks in the U.S. have been inflated during this period of high interest rates.

During this time, U.S. banks have raised lending rates in line with the Federal Reserve's high interest rate policy, but have maintained lower interest rates for depositors.

Data from U.S. regulatory agencies shows that as of the end of the second quarter, the average annual interest rate paid by U.S. banks to depositors was only 2.2%.

This is higher than the 0.2% they paid two years ago, but much lower than the 5.5% overnight rate that banks themselves can obtain from the Federal Reserve.

Although the interest rates of some savings accounts have been raised due to the Federal Reserve's target rate of over 5%, the interest rates received by most depositors remain low.

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For example, the annual deposit interest rates of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are 1.5% and 1.7%, respectively.

According to calculations by the Financial Times, U.S. banks have created an excess interest income of $1.1 trillion through this method, accounting for about half of the banks' total revenue during the same period.

After the Federal Reserve cut the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points last week, banks quickly responded by lowering rates to protect their profits.

Reports indicate that Citibank was ready to cut rates just a few hours before the Federal Reserve announced the rate cut.

JPMorgan Chase will also cut the deposit interest rate for customers with $10 million or more in cash by 50 basis points, with future rates aligning with the Federal Reserve's actions.

In response, JPMorgan Chase stated: "Our goal is to ensure fair and competitive interest rates."

Citigroup and Bank of America declined to comment.

Chris McGratty, head of KBW U.S. bank research, said that after the Federal Reserve's rate cut, banks "definitely" have the "ability to lower deposit rates," but the extent of adjustments may vary among banks.

With the arrival of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut cycle, the era of high interest rates in the United States is about to end.

Recently, many bank customers have realized that they have been taken advantage of by banks during the high interest rate era.

They have begun to file lawsuits against banks for using customer cash settlement accounts to obtain high earnings while still offering low interest rates.

Regions Financial and JPMorgan Chase have recently been sued by customers, and previously Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and UBS have also faced similar accusations.

According to reports, the core dispute of these lawsuits is that these institutions have obtained high earnings from customer idle funds, but the interest rates offered by cash settlement accounts remain at the level of the low interest rate era.