Australian consumers are much less likely to trust opinions of financial services providers than those of non experts, new research has revealed.

When asked to "what extent do you trust the following when it comes to your finances (your banking, insurance, credit cards etc)", three-quarter (77 per cent) of Australian consumers will rely on themselves and one-third (35.4 per cent) will trust their friends and family when it comes to their finances, according to a survey by independent market analyst firm, Datamonitor.

"Thanks to easy access to various forms of social media and the rapid distribution of communication services such as mobile internet, wireless hot spots, smart phones, Skype and instant messaging services few consumers are every truly cut off from their social networks, regardless of whether these are their friends and family or online communities." said Andrew Haslip, Datamonitor senior analyst and author of this research.

In a majority of mature markets, such as Australia and Japan for Asia Pacific, the opinion and advice of friends and family rank ahead of all financial services institutions in terms of how much consumers trust them when it comes to their finances such as insurance.

"Specialists in insurance such as insurers themselves or financial advisors such as brokers are trusted strongly by only a minority of consumers, 18.5 per cent and 20.4 per cent respectively and their word is normally trusted considerably less than the non-expert advice' adds Haslip based in Sydney.

Australian consumers also attached a relatively high importance to national banks and rated players from this one financial sector above friends and family in terms of trust with finances. Indeed, 40.4 per cent of Australians, professed to completely or greatly trust their national bank.

"This situation reflects the stable and well established position of the large domestic banks in the region, and is particularly important for the insurance market as many of the big banks are also active in the large home and car insurance markets," concludes Haslip.