Fear Factor: Banking

With the collective regulators today jawing about the safety and soundness of the banking industry, I got to thinking about the level of fear of the average banking consumer today. The short answer: it’s high.

TheStreet.com has taken the pulse of this fear over the last several days in an online survey entitled “Are you worried about your bank going out of business?” (The title alone should tell you something about the hype attached to banking these days.) The poll asks consumers to exclaim their opinions by checking one of the following three wholly non-scientific statements:

A) Yes. I might put my money under the mattress.
B) A little, but I’m confident the FDIC would cover my losses.
C) No. I’m sure my bank is safe.

The results break down as follows:

A) 19.82% / 45 votes
B) 31.71% / 72 votes
C) 48.45% / 110 votes

While it is true that 49% of the respondents see their banks as “safe,” nearly 52% exhibit a degree of fear about their bank’s future. I would venture to say that that number should be closer to 15% in normal times, and should be at that level today considering the safeguards in our banking system. Ah, if only these were normal times.