By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Despite the turmoil on Wall Street and the nation and the collapse of several major banks, a solid majority of registered voters expressed confidence in the security of their bank accounts, a new Ipsos/McClatchy poll has found.

The poll found that 70 percent of those surveyed were confident in the security of their checking accounts or money market accounts and 27 percent not confident. Similarly, it found 72 percent were confident in the safety of their savings accounts.

A smaller but still solid majority of 60 percent said they were confident in the ability of the federal government to cover the costs of federal deposit insurance in the case of bank failures. Better than one out of three, 36 percent, said they didn't have confidence in the federal government's bank insurance, despite the fact that no American has ever lost money in an account insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The survey was taken as part of Ipsos/McClatchy's weekly presidential preference poll of 1,007 respondents who identified themsevles as registered voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The FDIC insures accounts up to $100,000 in banks that buy the insurance. The proposed Wall Street bailout up for a Senate vote Wednesday night would raise the covered amount to $250,000.

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