"What use would a 2-Mbps Ethernet connection be to a financial firm? I would think they'd need a lot more bandwidth--but I could be wrong..."

"GB,
I suppose it would depend upon what that financial institution is doing with the network connection. I know of many financial institutions that operate automatic teller machines, credit card terminals and point of sale devices. Many of these are upgrading from subrate (X.21) interfaces running at a fraction of 2Mbps. Some systems simply aren't ready for a gigabit worth of bandwidth.
My $0.02"