Given my post yesterday I was a little heartened today to see the results of a recent survey showing financial consumers (at least in the US) may be finallly waking up:
“U.S. consumers are more skeptical than ever that financial services companies have their best interests at heart, according to a survey released on Monday.
The survey of 5,000 consumers, conducted by Forrester Research Inc, ranks major financial service providers according to the perception of how important clients' financial interests are to a company.
It found A.G. Edwards, a brokerage unit of Wachovia Corp (WB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and other troubled companies such as American International Group Inc (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and National City Corp (NCC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), to be among the biggest losers of their customers' faith.
“The subprime mortgage crisis, sagging stock markets and falling rates of return on everything from savings accounts to real estate have left consumer feeling less confident,” said Bill Doyle, a Forrester analyst.
In Juggling Dynamite I liken the financial sales firms to very profitable drug pushers in our society. So far at least, Canadian consumers still seem to be asleep in la la land loving their banks/broker/dealers. Time will tell if they too may begin to wake up. I guess it depends on how many Canadians suffer big financial losses over the course of the present down cycle in real estate and financial markets this time. Stay tuned.
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