NEW YORK, NY:May 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Through the recent financial crisis,the various institutions that make up the financial world have all been hit in one way or another for not being there for their customers. It's no surprise then that very few Americans (between 2% and 5%) say they find statements completely believable if made by a spokesperson for one of these types of companies.

Majorities of Americans find statements by spokespersons from accounting firms (62%), banks (57%), and investment firms (52%) somewhat believable.

These are some of the findings of a new Harris Poll® survey of 2,755U.S. adults, surveyed online between April 12 and 19, 2010 by Harris Interactive.

On the other hand, almost two-thirds of Americans (64%) say they find statements made by a spokesperson from a credit card company not at all believable. Majorities say the same about statements made by spokespersons for both government agencies that regulate financial institutions (53%) and mortgage companies (51%). Health insurance companies divide people, as just under half (49%) say they would find a statement by one of their spokespeople somewhat believable and 49% would find it not at all believable.

Generational Differences

Echo Boomers, those aged 18-33, are across the board more likely to find statements made by these companies more believable than older generations. Three-quarters of Echo Boomers (74%) find statements made by accounting firms to be believable (completely or somewhat) compared to 63% of Gen Xers (those aged 34-45). Almost two-thirds of the youngest generation (65%) says they find statements by the government agencies that regulate financial institutions to be believable. Compare this with 43% of Gen Xers, 41% of Baby Boomers (those aged 46-64) and 36% of Matures (those aged 65 and older) who say the same.

Partisan Differences

Republicans and Democrats have some differences over how believable they find statements by those in the financial world. Seven in ten Democrats (70%) and two-thirds of Independents (66%) say they do not find any statement by credit card companies to be believable compared to 56% of Republicans who say the same. Two-thirds of Republicans (65%) say they do not find statements made by government agencies that regulate financial institutions to be believable compared to 40% of Democrats who say this.

So What?

The issue here is one of trust. It takes a long time for any industry to build up the levels of trust that help them weather crises when they occur. And since this crisis is one that negatively impacts people's wallets, trust will erode even more quickly and take much longer to rebuild. That is what these financial companies have to undertake right now.

                                   TABLE 1
                   STATEMENTS MADE BY FINANCIAL COMPANIES
     "Generally speaking, how believable do you normally find statements
           made by someone who works for one of these companies?"

  Base: All adults
                                                                  Not at
                                Believable Completely  Somewhat     all
                                  (NET)    Believable  Believable Believable
                                     %          %          %          %
  Accounting firms                  67          5         62         33
  Banks                             62          4         57         38
  Investment firms                  55          2         52         45
  Health insurance companies        51          2         49         49
  Mortgage companies                49          2         47         51
  Government agencies that regulate
   financial institutions           47          4         43         53
  Credit card companies             36          2         34         64

  Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding




                                     TABLE 2
             STATEMENTS MADE BY FINANCIAL COMPANIES - NOT BELIEVABLE
       "Generally speaking, how believable do you normally find statements
             made by someone who works for one of these companies?"
                Summary of those who say "Not at all believable"

  Base: All adults
                                  Generation                     Party ID
                        ——————————————————  ———————
                                Echo    Gen.  Baby  
                               Boomers   X   Boomers  Matures
                        Total (18-33) (34-45) (46-64) (65+)   Rep. Dem. Ind.
                        ——- ———- ——— ———— ———  —-  —-  —-
                           %     %       %      %      %       %     %     %
  Credit card companies   64     56     68     69     64      56    70   66
  Government agencies
   that regulate
   financial institutions 53     35     57     59     64      65    40   58
  Mortgage companies      51     39     53     57     58      42    57   52
  Health insurance
   companies              49     41     52     54     48      36    56   53
  Investment firms        45     36     49     50     48      38    50   45
  Banks                   38     28     40     45     40      30    44   39
  Accounting firms        33     26     37     36     33      26    38   31

  Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding





                                    TABLE 3
              STATEMENTS MADE BY FINANCIAL COMPANIES - BELIEVABLE
      "Generally speaking, how believable do you normally find statements
             made by someone who works for one of these companies?"
   Summary of those who say "Completely believable" or "Somewhat believable"

  Base: All adults
                                  Generation                     Party ID
                        ——————————————————  ———————
                                Echo    Gen.  Baby  
                               Boomers   X   Boomers  Matures
                        Total (18-33) (34-45) (46-64) (65+)   Rep. Dem. Ind.
                        ——- ———- ——— ———— ———  —-  —-  —-
                          %       %      %      %       %      %    %    %
  Accounting firms       67      74     63      64      67    74   62  69
  Banks                  62      72     60      55      60    70   56  61
  Investment firms       55      64     51      50      52    62   50  55
  Health insurance
   companies             51      59     48      46      52    64   44  47
  Mortgage companies     49      61     47      43      42    58   43  48
  Government agencies
   that regulate
   financial
   institutions          47      65     43      41      36    35   60  42
  Credit card companies  36      44     32      31      36    44   30  34

  Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between April 12 and 19, 2010 among 2,755 adults (aged 18 and over).Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Where appropriate, these data were also weighted to reflect the composition of the adult online population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with non-response, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure,unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Source: Harris Interactive