Financial stocks we love

The subprime mortgage meltdown and resulting credit crisis have slammed financial stocks recently. But there are still some diamonds in the rough.

Let's face it, financials have seen better days. Banks, investment banks and insurers were booming as recently as the beginning of last year. But the S&P Financial sector has fallen 28.5% in the past 12 months and 9.3% so far in 2008.

So we looked for financial stocks that don't, er, stink. We screened for large cap companies with strong earnings, low debt, few write-offs, and minimal subprime exposure. We also only included companies that haven't seen their earnings estimates trimmed by analysts in the past month.

To be sure, this is a battered industry where even the strongest companies have faced some headwinds. But here are five stocks that we think will perform well even in these troubling financial times.
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