Over the past few months, Americans have watched as financial institutions have received government bailouts, or been shut down and have had to close their doors due to the economic crisis. It is perhaps not surprising then that almost three in five Americans (58%) say they do not consider any of nine financial institutions and insurance companies to be honest and trustworthy; that is, they would not believe a statement by someone who works for one of these companies.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll®, a new nationwide survey of 2,681 U.S. Adults surveyed online between May 11 and May 18, 2009 by Harris Interactive®.

More specifically:

* When it comes to which ones of these industries are honest and trustworthy, one-quarter of Americans (25%) say banks are honest and trustworthy while 14% say the same of accounting firms and 13% say both life insurance companies and financial planning firms are honest and trustworthy;

* Just over one in ten Americans say health insurance companies (12%) are honest and trustworthy, while less than one in ten say the same about investment firms (7%), mortgage companies (6%), Wall Street (4%) and credit card companies (4%);

* There is also a generational difference for this as almost two-thirds (64%) of Gen Xers (those aged 33-44) and 61% of Baby Boomers (those aged 45-63) say they do not consider any of these to be honest and trustworthy compared to 52% of Echo Boomers (those aged 18-32) and 53% of Matures (those aged 64 and older);

* Three in ten Echo Boomers (30%) say banks are honest and trustworthy compared to just 18% of Gen Xers; and,

* Americans with household incomes of under $35,000 are more likely than other income groups to consider none of these industries honest and trustworthy (64%) while less than half of those with household incomes of between $50,000 and $74,999 (48%) feel the same.

So what?

The Obama Administration is trying to do everything in its power to shore up the economic situation and respond to the crisis. One problem is that the industries which will actually be working with the consumer to lend money or refinance mortgages are in dire straits with Americans. There is a serious lack of trust that has developed and until this trust is rebuilt, these financial industries will be looked at with at the very least skepticism, but also scorn. It may take years to see a rebuilding of at least some trust here.