Finance professionals and politicians are eager to have their say on how to fill the space left by the Twin Towers and ensure Lower Manhattan remains at the heart of the financial world. But they would probably be better advised to concentrate on rebuilding confidence in a financial industry whose reputation is in steep decline.

In the background, lawsuits between investment banks and equity investors rumble on as investors try to gather evidence that the big banks conned them out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Scandals surrounding the technology boom and bust have added to mistrust of bankers and helped destroy the reputation of equity analysts at the big banks.