Investors’ trust in financial services has been stable since the end of 2009, albeit at a lukewarm level, and it suggests upcoming regulatory change is justified, according to new research.

The Financial Services Research Forum, which is based at Nottingham University Business School in the UK, has compiled a “trust index” based on client surveys. Scores are out of 100, with a figure below 50 indicating perceptions of unfairness and those over 50 showing increasing fairness.

For example, the score for base-level trust, which centres on respondents’ notions of dependability and reliability, has consistently been in the mid-to-high 60s, the report showed.  The score for high-level trust, which centres on customers’ concerns about their best interests, has seldom strayed very far above or below the 55 mark.

The gap between trust in a person’s own financial institution and trust in such organisations in general has also been steady, with the score for the former almost invariably around 10 points higher.

The need to restore shattered trust in financial services has been a recurring theme at wealth management conferences and media commentary since the 2008 financial crisis. Recent events, such as the LIBOR-rigging scandal, the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scam and punishments of firms that sold unsuitable products to clients have added to the sense that the industry is not as trusted as it would like to be.

Consistent

“These levels of trust may be consistent, but the reality is that they’re consistently mediocre,” Professor James Devlin of the Nottingham University Business School, said.

“In some ways it’s remarkable that the events of the past few years haven’t genuinely destroyed consumer confidence rather than merely left it in this stasis,” Professor Devlin said.

The report was issued ahead of the UK’s Retail Distribution Review programme of reforms which kick in at the start of 2013. The RDR stamps out use of trail commissions and increases training qualifications for wealth advisors, in a bid to make the industry less biased in its advice.

“RDR’s impact on consumer perceptions will emerge only over the course of months or even years. We can only hope the effects prove positive and worth the wait and that the industry – in the form of providers and consumers alike – will be suitably inspired,” Professor Devlin said.

The Financial Services Research Forum was founded in 1994.