48% Are Confident In U.S. Banks, 47% Aren't

Americans continue to have mixed feelings about the stability of the U.S. banking system but still express less concern about the safety of their own money in those banks.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of American Adults are at least somewhat confident in the stability of the U.S. banking industry today, with 11% who are Very Confident. Nearly as many (47%) lack confidence in U.S. banks, including 16% who are Not At All Confident. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

That’s a bit closer than last month when 50% were confident in the banking system and 46% were not.  However, confidence remains well below the high of 68% in July 2008.  By September of that year as the financial industry meltdown became visible, 64% still had confidence in the banking industry, but confidence fell rapidly after that to hit a low of 39% in February 2009.  Confidence stayed in the low-to-mid-40s until earlier this year when it began inching up again.

Still, just 37% of adults are at least somewhat worried they will lose their money due to a bank failure. Sixty percent (60%) are not worried, down from last month’s high of 64%. That includes 12% who are Very Worried their money will be lost and 15% who are Not At All Worried. These findings have remained in a very narrow range since July 2008. 

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on June 7-8, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.