"Banking" scores low confidence, but consumers retain faith in their 'local' bank.

• Position: Marketing News - Survey - Brief article

One of the casualties of the ongoing financial crisis is the amount of confidence Americans have in U.S. Banks. With only 5 percent expressing a "great deal" of confidence and 13 percent "quite a lot" of confidence, Americans" confidence in banking has now fallen to its lowest level since 1979, according to data from Gallup Poll Daily.

The previous low of 30 percent confident was recorded during the 1990-91 recession and reflected the fallout association with the S&L debacle of the late 1980s. More than one in three Americans currently say they have "very little" confidence in U.S. financial institutions.

Despite the general decline...