Confidence in U.S. Banks Dips to New Low

For the second straight month, Americans are less confident than ever in the nation’s banking industry.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of U.S. Adults shows that just 34% are at least somewhat confident in the stability of the U.S. banking industry, including only five percent (5%) who are Very Confident. Confidence in the banking system is down a point from October, the previous all-time low.  Sixty-four percent (64%) don't share that confidence, with 19% who are Not At All Confident. The latter finding is the highest level of strong pessimism about the nation's banks measured in three years. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

To put this in context, overall confidence in U.S. banks is now lower than it was in February 2009 in the early days of the bailout era.  Prior to the financial industry meltdown in the fall of 2008, 68% expressed confidence in the stability of the U.S. banking system. 

Forty-six percent (46%) of investors are now confident in the stability of U.S. banks, a sentiment shared by just 20% of non-investors.

Still, most adults (59%) express little worry about losing the money they have in the bank, but that includes only 15% who are Not At All Worried. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say they are at least somewhat worried they will lose their money because of a bank failure, including 13% who are Very Worried. That’s a higher level of concern than in the summer of 2009 but fairly consistent with results from the past year.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 American Adults nationwide was conducted on November 11-12, 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.