hotmeat, you said the following, "if however COOP merges or buys an established banking chain then all bets are off."
Why in the world would COOP buy into banking? This would be completely wrong and insane. The FDIC changed the rules I believe in year 2012 to where they can now legally seize holding companies of large banks.
In my view, this is exactly why GE dumped their very lucrative finance arm which propelled them into disarray for several years for which they are just now recovering through very large internal years of restructuring.
There is no way COP gets into banking in ANY large way!