Banks; quite a popular subject with us here at the Money Hospital but they are clearly not so popular with many of you!

As if the never ending bank penalty charges saga wasn't enough, there was then the small matter of the Northern Rock fiasco; (Finance Physician said he hadn't seen such mass-hysteria-induced running-around-like-headless-chickens since Tottenham last played at home!)

Clearly this has had a big effect on many of you when it comes to trust as nearly half of us here in Britain say that we no longer trust banks! In fact, according to a survey by marketing firm Teamspirit, almost a quarter of us no longer trust lenders of any kind following the near-collapse of Northern Rock and the first run on a bank in over 100 years.

In fact, the whole mistrust virus seems to have spread to the internet too (which Matron frequently refers to as the "devils' tool" but then she is a little strange...)

After many of you struggled for days to withdraw your money via Northern Rock's website, faith in online banking has also been sapped, with 25% of you saying it is untrustworthy.

Volatility in the UK's financial sector has also bashed confidence across financial services, with credit card companies, insurance companies and investment firms all scoring poorly.

In short, it seems that the mistrust has also spread to other sectors of the financial services industry: 26% of you saying you no longer trusted supermarkets to provide financial products, while 22% of you had lost faith in credit card companies, (something that has been on the cards for a while!) and 20% did not trust insurers. Gosh, we are skeptical lot aren't we?!

The only companies that appeared to have been unaffected were investment companies, which were deemed to be untrustworthy by just 7% of you, and loan companies that were not trusted by 6% of you.

One bright spot amongst the financial glom and doom was that building societies came out top in the league of trustworthiness, with 48% of you declaring your confidence in them.

Joanne Parker, chief executive of Teamspirit commented on their survey:

"The Northern Rock situation has contributed to the low levels of trust that the British public has in companies that look after their money."

"But with the UK having one of the most regulated financial services markets in the world, our industry offers customers a great deal of choice and flexibility" she added.

So, it would appear that we have a healthy distrust of many financial organizations; but which of the lenders do you trust the least?

Why not vote in our poll below?