The idea that banking is a difficult and expensive market to enter is being tested at present.Patersons Securities, a growing force in Perth finance, plans to acquire majority control of Goldfields Credit Union for the modest premium of $9 million.The owners and clients of Patersons, members of Goldfields Credit Union and perhaps others will be asked to invest in new shares in Goldfields.The credit union will demutualise and list on the Australian Stock Exchange.Profit in the year to June 2010 was $400,000, the chair, Allan Pendal, told Banking Day yesterday.Assets are around $40 million. Net assets are less than $6 million.Yesterday's announcement styles the plan as a "strategic alliance with Patersons".Patersons and GCU will seek to cross-sell each other's products, through each other's networks.In this fashion, Paterson Securities will quickly become, in effect, a licensed bank.Goldfields considered but eventually turned down merger offers from at least one community credit union.Job security is an issue, and Pendal said he preferred the Paterson offer on these grounds.Pendal also sees a growth platform for what is one of Australia's smallest credit unions, and Patersons is obviously planning to put its deposit-taking balance sheet to work, which will inevitably need more capital if there's any merit in the vision.Whether Patersons has the panache to make this dirt-cheap ADI licence make money is another matter. Maybe.Whether Patersons can gain access to a banking licence on the cheap is the more pressing question.If this Perth plan succeeds, it can expect imitators.