Take a quick stroll among the palm trees and commercial towers in Honolulu's financial district and names like Washington Mutual, Bank of America and Wachovia are nowhere to be found.

The dominant players here are Bank of Hawaii, American Savings Bank, Central Pacific Bank and First Hawaiian Bank, as they have been for decades. And unlike some of their larger, mainland counterparts who have been drowning in a sea of red ink, island institutions continue to post strong, even record, profits. And so far, they have withstood the nation's mortgage meltdown.

“;We're the luckiest bank in the world,”; said Allan Landon, chairman and chief executive of Bank of Hawaii.

It wasn't all luck. The four banks are weathering the financial storm by avoiding subprime lending, maintaining their conservative practices and keeping in mind the region's long-lasting economic downturn in the 1990s. That's when the Japanese financial bubble burst and so did all the frenzied, speculative buying by international investors that inflated real estate prices in Hawaii.

“;They've seen these cycles, so they understand that being old-fashioned or being conservative may not be sexy, but over the long term, it's proved to be a sound business practice,”; said Gary Fujitani, executive director of the Hawaii Bankers Association.

For the past two months, the banking industry has been pummeled by forces not seen since the Depression. Some of the biggest and most powerful banking companies in the country—with names such as Washington Mutual, Wachovia and National City—have disappeared, swallowed by larger companies in an effort to avoid a total collapse. Others continue to struggle. Just last week, Citigroup said it would eliminate 53,000 jobs, as its shares plunged and analysts speculated that it will have to be broken up or sold. And late Sunday, the federal government agreed to shoulder hundreds of billions of dollars in possible losses at Citigroup and to plow a fresh $20 billion into the company.

It's not complete doom and gloom, though. Some banks are showing financial resiliency and the ability to churn out profits. They include Paramus, N.J.-based Hudson City Bancorp, which reported a 64 percent jump in net income for the third quarter, and Kansas City, Mo.-based UMB Financial Corp., whose profits edged up 1 percent to $21.8 million.

Perhaps nowhere is the success as widespread as it is in the Aloha State. These banks did what successful financial institutions have done for decades: Pay close attention to the balance sheet and lend to people who can pay you back. It's a roadmap, experts say, that could be used to help the rest of the industry save itself.

“;Real banking, in a sense, is back,”; said Diane Casey-Landry, chief operating officer of the American Bankers Association, who added that prudent lending standards are now being more widely adopted.

“;The underwriting that was being done by some of the non-banks and new players in the market, was not the underwriting banks were doing,”; she said. “;Banks have always had a higher standard.”;

Banks and other lenders that purchased or made bad mortgages by the billions got away from the fundamentals. Not so in Hawaii.

“;The bottom line is, we're a pretty conservative lot,”; Landon said. “;We've got enough people who've been around to remember when banks got in trouble before, and that's not a fun place to be.”;

Not only are the banks here conservative, so are many borrowers. They largely stayed away from risky mortgages from outside lenders that underwrote mortgages with very little down, changing rates and no income verification.

“;You have a combination of good banks and a little more conservative culture. You put those two together and we're a little better off,”; said Tim Schools, president of American Savings Bank, who estimated that 90 percent of his company's mortgages were traditional 15- and 30-year products.

Also, many home buyers purchased properties with the intention of living there for a long time. There wasn't as much speculative buying as in other sunshine states such as California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

Despite their small presence, out-of-state lenders own the bulk of foreclosures in Hawaii, according to the state Division of Financial Institutions.

While isle foreclosures have been rising at a brisk pace, they are still much lower than the national average.

In another show of confidence, Territorial Saving Bank announced last week it would go public in the first quarter of 2009, despite the economy.