Thomson Reuters has announced the latest results of its proprietary TRust Index, showing that first-quarter 2014 trust sentiment in the Top 50 Global Financial institutions as a whole remained steady, but negative.  However, institutions from the Americas started the year well, ending with the first positive trust score of any region since the Index was launched a year ago.

That, of course, was before the publication of Flash Boys by Michael Lewis which doesn’t depict the U.S. investment banks or exchanges in a positive light at all.
 
Tracking trust through news sentiment shows that the Americas institutions followed by the TRust Index crossed into positive territory to end the first quarter with a trust score of 2 percent (-1.85 percent Q4 2013), due in part to increased profits at Canadian banks.  This compared to a -1 percent score for the Top 50 Global institutions as a whole (-1.75 percent Q4) and -2 percent for both Europe (-1.25 percent Q4) and Asia (-1.5 percent Q4).  In Asia, decreasing trust was partially attributable to tightening credit conditions in China, while European financial institutions experienced a decline in trust due to continuing investigations around interest rate fixing, rigging of exchange rates and tax fraud.

Imagine that such things would have an impact!
 
“During the financial crisis, and since, Canada has been noteworthy for the policies and discipline that allowed the country to better weather the storm, and its financial institutions to more quickly recover,” said David Craig, president, Financial & Risk at Thomson Reuters. “It is no surprise therefore to see Canadian banks leading the Americas region into positive sentiment as we measure trust in the Top 50 Global Financials for the 5th consecutive quarter of the TRust Index.”