Rasmussen Poll: Half in U.S. Want Biggest Banks Broken Up

There's not much support for keeping the nation’s megabanks intact, according to a new Rasmussen poll released Thursday, showing that 50 percent of respondents favor a plan to break up the 12 largest financial institutions.

Just 23 percent oppose breaking them apart, according to the poll, while another 27 percent are undecided about what to do with the big 12 that control 69 percent of the banking industry.

The findings from the telephone survey of 1,000 adults on March 19-20 follow a Senate report released earlier this month revealing that the country’s largest bank, JP Morgan Chase, manipulated and withheld key information during its record trading losses last year.

According to the Rasmussen survey, the report is fueling an even greater belief that the industry’s biggest players have not learned anything from the events that led to the 2008 government bailouts.