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Christine St Anne is Morningstar's online funds and ETFs editor.

Banks are among the top stock holdings in an investor's blue-chip portfolio. Despite the European and US debt woes engulfing their peers, Australian banks have successfully navigated the market crisis.

In a recent report, Morningstar head of Australian banking research David Ellis said the outlook for Australian banks was positive.

"Australian banks operate in an economy that is actually growing, they provide solid earnings growth potential, low fundamental investment risk and high fully-franked dividends," Ellis said.

Importantly, none of Australia's banks are exposed to the sovereign debt of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. Equally important is that none of Australia's banks will default.

The traditional approach by many investors is to directly invest in bank stocks. There are, however, ways to get sector-specific exposure to the banks in one cost-effective transaction.

There are four exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that focus on the banking sector: the Aii S&P Financials Ex-A-REIT (FIX), the Aii S&P/ASX 200 Financials (FIN), the Betashares S&P/ASX 200 Financials Sector (QFN) and the SPDR S&P/ASX 200 Financials ex-REIT Fund (OZF).

"Sector-specific ETFs are a reasonable way for investors to get access to dedicated financials exposure," Morningstar associate analyst Alison Stauss says.

Investors can also take sector tilts in their portfolio using these ETFs.

The FIX, QFN and OZF track the S&P/ASX 200 Financials Ex A-REIT Index, while the FIN tracks the S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index. Despite the different indexes tracked, all four ETFs give investors access to the four major banks.

Consistent with the S&P indexes, these ETFs all have sizeable weightings to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC).

The FIN also has exposure to Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs) in its top 10 holdings, including Westfield Group (WDC) and Stockland (SGP).

Besides the major banks, these ETFs are also invested in insurance and investment banks including QBE Insurance (QBE), Suncorp Group (SUN) and Macquarie Group (MQG).

Given that banks pay good dividends, these ETFs tend to have an income-focused component. All dividends earned from these ETFs are distributed back to investors after fees and expenses are deducted.

"The dividend yields offered on these ETFs are comparable to those dividends offered by a number of the high-dividend ETFs on offer," Stauss says.