The four major banks will benefit substantially from the crisis, as they have further consolidated with the acquisition of regional banks and specialist wealth providers, according to a report by consultancy firm Oliver Wyman.

"The Australian majors have shown resilience to date, outperforming their global peers on a relative shareholder value basis," Oliver Wyman Australasia head David Moloney said.

"To succeed, majors need to quickly formulate cycle adaptive strategies and reset their business models to significantly lower long term growth rates."

The report stated that the four major banks benefited from well-capitalised balance sheets, resilient housing prices and swift action by regulators, such as the introduction of the deposit guarantee and guarantee of bank loans.

These banks had a relatively modest exposure to structured credit products, which contained the deterioration of their lending books.
The consultancy firm expects the performance of the banks over 2009 to remain strong.

Earnings will be hit by further deterioration of consumer and business credit, continued high funding costs and major reductions in personal wealth holdings.

But they will also continue to attract funds through their reputation for being stable organisations, increased credit margins and sustained lending growth.

Australian financial services providers also provided shareholders with better returns over the last five years than their international competitors in other developed countries, the report found.

Based on their risk-adjusted shareholder value, financials performed better than their peers in the US and Western Europe.

QBE Insurance Group was the best performing stock of all global financial services companies with a market value larger than $15 billion.