Ed

I think it would be pro-competitive for the industry.

The problem is the more I read about it and the more bankers I talk to, integrating a bank merger is a nightmare.

Why?

Why is it a nightmare as opposed to anything else?

Okay, so one reason is because it's such a human capital industry.

So the first thing that happens when BB&T and SunTrust get together is that everybody at the competing banks

calls up the best banker at the merging banks and is like, you really want to put up with three years of bullshit while these guys screw around changing their name and re-upping?

Why don't you come work for me instead?

And that banker, maybe it's a commercial banker who makes loans to banks or it's somebody, a trader, whatever, you know, they just walk out and they take a lot of their clients with them.

Right?

As people used to say about Goldman Sachs, our assets go up and down in the elevators every day.

And to a certain degree, that is true of all banks, even like a traditional branch banking bank.

And you go through the disruption of a merger, all of that is at risk.

So that's a big problem.

Also, regulation in banking is so much stricter than every other industry.

So you got the regulators on the top, less so now under Trump, but you have the regulators on your back while you're trying to do it.

Uh, that's another issue.

And, you know, culture is really important in banking, you know, vibes, you know, it's, it's a, it's a people business again.

So you mess with that corporate culture and you got an issue.

So it's just really hard to do not say it won't happen.