Nearly four in five American investors (79 per cent) want to “see strong action taken to correct the problems that exist today” in the financial markets, including over a third (34 per cent) who are angry about the debacle on Wall Street and the related failure of regulatory oversight, a survey has found.

These are among the findings of an extensive new survey of 1,256 US investors conducted by Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of ShareOwners.org, a non-profit and non-partisan organisation aiming to “educate and organise US investors to support both short- and long-term financial market reforms.”

The report found that more than half of American investors (52 per cent) say "more information and online education about your rights and duties as a shareholder" would make them more confident about the fairness of the financial markets; and nearly one in five investors (17 per cent, or 24 million US citizens) who would "consider becoming involved in a group to protect the rights and interests of shareholders or investors like you."