Consumers cast their votes of confidence in our nation's financial institutions this past year, fueled by market gains, some volatility, a focus on interest rates and fast-changing U.S. policy on trade and tariffs. They told us that a company's financial soundness and security, and the quality of its products and services, are the most important qualities in the firms they do business with. And of course they must have trust in those qualities.
The companies that have succeeded in winning customer trust top the ranks of Investor's Business Daily's 2025 list of the 30 Most Trusted Financial Companies. IBD's sister company, MarketWatch, is co-branding the special report for a fourth year. Read our full special report here.
Investor's Business Daily, in partnership with TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, conducted the sixth annual survey of customer trust in financial companies. The survey ranks top financial companies across eight business categories.
- ETF/fund companies
- Wealth managers
- Online brokers
- Credit card issuers
- Banks
- Life insurers
- Auto insurers
- Home insurers
The research covered eight areas of trust. The trust attributes included in the 2025 survey are:
- Financially sound/Secure
- Quality of products/services
- Ethical business practices and values
- Privacy and security of personal data
- Customer service
- Prices
- Sensitivity to customer needs in the current economic and financial climate (inflation, stock market, etc.)
- Confidence in management
Read Our Business Category Stories On The 2025 Most Trusted Financial Companies In Investing, Insurance, Credit Cards And Banking.
Customer Trust: Two-Phase Research
The study was conducted in two phases with data collected via online surveys.
The goal of phase one was to identify the trust characteristics that are most important to consumers. Using the attributes identified in phase one, respondents in phase two evaluated financial companies they most often utilize in each of the eight business categories.
In March and April, 434 consumers participated in the phase one survey. The respondents were drawn from visitors to IBD's Investors.com website and IBD readers who received email invitations.
We started with eight trust attributes developed by IBD editors and TechnoMetrica. Using the MaxDiff research technique, we presented respondents with five randomly selected combinations of five trust attributes and asked them to choose the most important and the least important.
The results of phase one showed that all eight attributes must be included for evaluation in phase two. Phase one also gave us the weights of each attribute to calculate the overall trust index in phase two.
Customer Trust Won By Financial Soundness, Quality Services
Financially sound/secure received the highest weight in our study, topping our list of a financial company's most critical trust factors. Quality of products/services took second place, followed by the Commitment to protecting the privacy and security of personal data.
Ethical business practices and values came in fourth place, followed by the Company's service and treatment of customers.
Fair prices/fees for products/services took the sixth place, followed by Confidence in management. Sensitivity of companies to customer needs in the current economic and financial climate (inflation, stock market, etc.) finished last.
Phase two of the survey was conducted from May through early July. Using the eight trust attributes arrived at in phase one, survey respondents evaluated the company they most often utilize in each of the eight business lines.
We used a five-point scale for each company attribute for evaluation (Very High, High, Moderate, Low, Very Low) for the question, "How would you rate your level of trust with the company on the following company attributes?"
The phase 2 survey had 5,829 respondents, 617 of whom came from the IBD website or email invitations, 1,184 from the WSJ Opinion Leaders Panel, and 4,028 from TechnoMetrica's network of panel partners.
For all categories, we required at least 125 respondents to rate a company for inclusion in our ranking.
This year, 64 companies met our minimum inclusion criterion in phase two. By business line, they included 10 auto insurers, nine banks, 10 home insurers, eight life insurance providers, nine wealth management firms, eight credit card providers, five online brokers and five ETF/fund companies.
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Trust Score Computation
For each company, we calculated seven trust components based on the responses to the phase two survey.
We computed the component scores by taking the difference between the percentage of respondents assigning a very high or high rating and the percentage who gave a low or very low rating. For example, if 40% rated a company's quality of products/services as Very High, 20% as High, 9% as Low, and 5% as Very Low, we calculated the trust component for quality as 46% (60% less 14%).
We combined the eight component scores using the weights from phase one to arrive at each company's overall Trust Index rating. Based on IBD's Trust Index average for companies in each category, ETF/fund companies, online brokers, and wealth management companies are the most trusted by consumers this year. Credit card companies and banks scored in the middle. Home, life and auto insurers rounded out the list.
Raghavan Mayur is president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence.
IBD's special reports are objective and data-based. This independent special report is produced by the IBD editorial team. There is no sponsored content, nor are there any commission links. A company cannot apply to get on this list, and there are no fees.
