Investors lose faith with regulatory authorities
Nearly 60% of respondents to a recent survey by F&C believe the regulatory authorities that presided over the credit crisis were part of the problem and cannot be relied upon to ensure it won't happen again.
But while 34.5% felt blame for the global financial crisis should be shared, an almost identical number - 34.4% - said banks should take most of the blame.
F&C Investments emailed the survey to private investors in June and invited readers of its investment trust customer magazine, Focus, to participate throughout the autumn. Nearly 700 people responded.
Among other findings of the survey - which was split into two parts, the first dealing with the economy, markets and the political scene and the second focusing on respondents' own investment portfolios - was a degree of optimism regarding a global recovery. A fifth of respondents said they could already see evidence of recovery, with a further 32% expecting recovery to start within one to three years.
Turning to politics, more than 85% of respondents said they thought the Government would leave it as late as possible to call a General Election, which must take place before 3 June 2010.
If F&C's investors are right, Gordon Brown and his Labour Party colleagues will need all the time they can get to challenge the ascendant Conservatives. Asked who would win most seats if a General Election were held today, 91.6% said the Conservative Party.
However, while the expectation was clear-cut, the ramifications of a change of Government were less so - just under half (49%) said it would have a positive effect on the economy and stockmarket, against 10% who expected a negative effect and 28% who said it would have no effect.
Asked which asset class would do best over the coming year, nearly half the respondents to the survey (46%) chose international equities, with UK equities (11.5%) and commodities (10.1%) the next most popular choices.
While 61% had not changed the mix of assets in which they invest as a result of the credit crunch, more than a quarter - 28% - said they now held a wider range of asset classes than previously.
One particular area to find favour was higher-yielding equities. With interest rates so low, 14% said they were investing more in these, with 19.6% deploying a range of income-producing assets to boost their portfolio yield.
Mike Woodward, Head of Investment Trusts at F&C Investments, commented: "While it seems our investors are a thoughtful bunch not prone to the kind of knee-jerk reactions we have seen in the popular press, more than a third still believe banks are most to blame for the credit crunch, and over half think regulatory failures contributed to the problem. But despite their misgivings over the handling of the financial crisis, it is encouraging to see how optimistic they are for the future, and we hope their faith in the equity markets will be rewarded in 2010."