How to restore trust in the financial system?

As government and business leaders get to grips with 2014, they are confronting a global economy that is still underperforming, at a time when trust and confidence have both taken a hit.

Not far beneath the surface, there is a widening divide between advanced and emerging economies and growing concerns about what the increasing trust deficit means in these uncertain times.

The spark for this angst and division is a global economy that, five years after the onset of the financial crisis and recession, continues to drift, still supported by extraordinary levels of monetary stimulus, still experiencing bouts of volatility, and now lacking the commonality of purpose for effective international coordination across advanced and emerging economies.

Political leaders in the West face a public whose expectations for a rebound in jobs, growth and living standards have still not been met. Although their counterparts in emerging economies largely avoided the financial crisis, they are increasingly feeling the constraining embrace of its global aftermath.

While certainly not the only factor in the weak global recovery, an international financial system not yet running on all cylinders is a definite contributor. Of course, much progress has been achieved in regulatory reform since the 2008 and 2009 G20 summits in Washington and London.

But there are still good reasons to worry about emerging tensions in the global financial system, centered around regulatory fragmentation at the expense of harmonization, unilateralism rather than coordination, and declining levels of trust rather than mutual confidence.

In a number of advanced economies, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom and the eurozone, there has been a large decline in public trust in banking systems. While this is likely indicative of the lingering impact of the nature and severity of their recessions, the extent is striking.

According to public relations firm Edelman, which conducts a global trust survey across 26 countries, almost 60 percent of US residents lack trust in the nation's financial sector, while in the eurozone, the figure stands at more than 70 percent.

As an example of how much times are changing, most emerging economies indicate high levels of trust in their financial systems, reflecting the simple fact that they largely avoided the financial crisis.

Beyond sovereign borders, there is a growing lack of trust among national financial systems, as evidenced by increasing regulatory fragmentation and fraying international coordination.