Business owners and financial service professionals want more honesty, integrity and ethics from practitioners, according to a new survey.

The survey, sponsored by QFINANCE, a website for financial information, also found that respondents say governmental regulators are poor in their effectiveness in handling the financial crisis.

When asked, “What is the single most important attribute a leading financial practitioner should possess today?” more than 19% cited “honesty,” “integrity” and/or “ethics.” Other attributes that rated multiple responses included “long-term view,” “skepticism,” “creativity,” “risk management” and “vision.”

The survey also asked respondents to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 for poor; 10 for excellent) the effectiveness of government regulators to deal with the financial industry crisis. An overwhelming 72% gave government bad marks of 5 or lower, with 35% rating regulators’ effectiveness a 1 or 2. Only 28% gave government a 6 or better; no one said regulators were doing an excellent job.

Survey respondents – who included finance professionals at both large and small companies, with nearly half from companies with more than $50 million in revenues – were also given the chance to tell what message they would give financial community leaders (regulators and executives), in 10 words or less? Among the responses were:

• “Enforce current regulations…do not over-regulate.”
• “Without incentive, there would be no progress.”
• “Stop saying ‘too big to fail.”
• “Get back to basics: risk/reward management.”
• “Manage based on long-term returns to shareholders and society.”
• “Let the markets resolve the issues without interference.”
• “Don’t give/don’t take public money to private companies.”
• “Embrace honesty and integrity; sacrifice reward for the common good.”
• “Teach financial literacy and entrepreneurism.”
• “Don’t be swayed by general public opinion.”
• “Prevention is better than cure!”
• “Diversification, deregulation and talent.”