Banking System Trust Low After Collapses, Bank Runs

Confidence in the banking industry is not looking good, according to a poll that came out Wednesday, per The Hill.

Just 10% of Americans have “a great deal” of confidence in “banks and financial institutions,” according to the survey results.

The questionnaire, which was conducted by The Associated Press and The University of Chicago’s NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, pulled participants from a representative sample of U.S. households. The survey was completed by 1,081 adults and conducted March 16 through 20, about one week after the run on Silicon Valley Bank that also felled Signature Bank and resulted in shock waves worldwide.

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This also contributed to the collapse of Credit Suisse in Switzerland, which was acquired by rival UBS on Sunday.

The published survey results covered topics from trust in institutions to opinions on the economy and finances. One data point that stood out was a decrease in low trust in baking and financial institutions since 2020. That year, 22% of Americans said they had “a great deal” of confidence in the financial system.

The survey also appears to reflect a bipartisan take. The majority of people polled in both political parties said the banking industry was not regulated enough, with 63% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans polled saying the government was doing “too little” to regulate financial institutions.

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At the same time, few Americans overall expressed trust in U.S. institutions, from the Supreme Court to Congress (just 5% said they have a “great deal” of trust in the latter).

The highest “great deal” was for the military, at 37%, but the rest of the data points indicate the percentage of people with a “great deal” of trust in an institution was lower than 18%.