It's possible that the banking industry has yet to truly understand the depth of anger directed toward it from middle America. But one could argue that the public anger has morphed into concrete action.

One reason we ended up with a bipartisan (more or less) reform bill was that the politicians figured out that their constituents were angry and were in favor of regulatory action (regulatory news). Americans seem to have less confidence in the financial-services industry today than they did in the immediate aftermath of the Wall Street meltdown, according to a survey released today by AlixPartners, the global business-advisory firm. Approximately 36 percent are more distrusting of banks than they were a year ago, despite the uptick in the economy and the significant reputational-building efforts by the financial-services industry and Washington, including proposed financial-reform legislation.

How bad has the industry's reputation fallen? Reuters suggests that as of now, "Congress enjoys a slightly better image." What remains to be seen is whether the marketers can turn this to their bank's advantage. 

For more:
- here's the survey release
- here's an article from Reuters

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