Half empty or half full, either way it's low.
The CFA Institute/Edelman Investor Trust Study 2013 found only half (53%) of investors trust investment management rms to do what is right. That compares with 68% of Hong Kong investors and 39% of UK investors.
Retail investors in the United States are also less trusting of the industry than their institutional counterparts (51% vs. 61%, respectively).
More troubling is the fact that nancial services is the industry least trusted by the general population, coming in behind telecommunications (56%), automotive (57%) and pharmaceuticals (60%), among others.
The reasons are familiar.
"This limited amount of trust reects a lack of confidence in the broader nancial services industry," the report says. "Hit by the shock of the 2008 financial crisis and ongoing scandals around money laundering, rogue trading, rate manipulation and insider trading, the industry lost the faith of its key constituents — the clients, investing public, and other participants that help it function on a day-to-day basis."
