Speaking as someone who occasionally gets roped into supporting a COBOL application at a large financial institution, I genuinely don't get the "we must replace it because it's old!" mentality. If it's still the best tool for the job then why move away? Just train people up and build tools to work with it on modern systems, just like Micro Focus and COBOL Cowboys (both mentioned in the OP) are already doing. As an added bonus, you can make a lot a money in the process too.
"The guy who wrote it left and nobody knows what it does" is a poor excuse with a self-documenting language like COBOL. How much sense do you think your tangled mess of Java will make in 50 years?
"The guy who wrote it left and nobody knows what it does" is a poor excuse with a self-documenting language like COBOL. How much sense do you think your tangled mess of Java will make in 50 years?