The cooperative banking group – the adherence to which is compulsory for all Italian cooperative banks – differs significantly from the other aggregative models available to banks both at the national and European level. Recently, however, the cooperative banks with their registered offices in Trento and Bolzano have been given the possibility to establish an institutional protection scheme in accordance with Article 113 (7) CRR as an alternative to the cooperative banking group. Moving from this amendment, this paper takes issue with the view that the cooperative banking group was the optimal solution. In particular, this paper deploys qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the advantages and disadvantages as well as the differences between the two options not only from a corporate law, but also – and mainly – from a prudential supervisory perspective and, ultimately, from that of the national interests.