Americans losing confidence in the Fed: survey

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most Americans say the country's financial crisis has hurt their confidence in the Federal Reserve, according to a Reuters/University of Michigan survey released on Friday.

The poll found sentiment toward banks and other financial institutions, like insurance firms and mutual funds, has also deteriorated.

At the same time, the economic downturn has dented trust in the nation's financial authorities.

Twenty-six percent of Americans said they were "a lot less" confident in the Fed, which is the U.S. central bank, now than five years ago. That was up from 7 percent back in 1987, before Greenspan began his 18-1/2-year term at the helm of the Fed.

An additional 29 percent said they were "a little less" confident in monetary policy-makers.

"The loss of confidence in both fiscal and monetary authorities was associated with less favorable levels of consumer sentiment," said Richard Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

The data suggested that, while consumer confidence may experience a momentary rebound from the results of the presidential election, such a bounce will likely be fleeting.

"These honeymoons are based on the promise for improvement, more about people feeling better about the future policy than actually doing better," Curtin said.

(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by James Dalgleish)