At the Indian School of Business, 15 per cent of last year's class had offers from financial services companies. Lehman Brothers was one of the largest recruiter in the past.

ISB is planning to extend Day Zero to Week Zero. This is to enable international firms to be among the first to come on campus and get first crack at all students.

At Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch have made five pre-placement offers each. The two companies were expected to hire 10 more students during final placements.

They have not been withdrawn their pre-placement offers yet.

Investment banks account for 50 per cent of total placements every year but experts expect offers to dry up this season.

Management students are also nervous about this 'traumatic' turn of events.

At IIM-Ahmedabad possibility of pre-placement offers from Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch will not come through and summer placements start mid-November and final placements take place in March.

Students at IIM-A are exploring non-banking options in marketing and real estate even as the institute says it is too early to comment on placement trends.