A trio of bankers previously associated with the local operations of BNP Paribas have joined the serpentine queue for a restricted banking licence from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
James Tong, a Chinese-born investment banker and financier who has worked in Sydney for the past 40 years, is the founder and executive chairman of Australia's latest banking aspirant known as In1Bank Limited.
Tong was the founding managing director of BNP Paribas' Australian equities operation in the 1990s and later chaired the advisory board of non-bank lender, AIMS Financial Group.
Since 2011 he has owned and managed Secvest Capital, a boutique finance house that focuses on "cross-border transactions between Australia and Greater China".
Secvest was the lead arranger of the initial public offer for Chinese furniture manufacturer, OneAll International, to ASX investors in 2015.
Tong is one of Australia's most connected business figures to China's financial services sector and could be expected to access capital sources in that country that have eluded other local startups.
According to ASIC records, In1Bank Limited is currently sitting on paid up capital of A$500,000.
Tong disclosed details of the licence application on his Linkedin page last week after the name of one of his companies - BDB Corporation - was changed to In1Bank Limited.
Mystery surrounds the business model for the banking hopeful and Tong yesterday declined an interview request from Banking Day.
However, in an email, he confirmed that the company was continuing to advance its licence application.
"Many thanks for your interest in us," Tong wrote in the email.
"Unfortunately, apart from working hard with our RADI application process, we do not have anything interesting for you and or the market yet.
"However, we are happy to keep you on our media contact list should any worthwhile 'story' comes to light later."
Other directors of In1Bank include two of Tong's former colleagues at BNP Paribas - Alnoor Premji and Franck Demoiseau.
Premji was a former deputy chief executive of BNP Investment Partners in Australia and is currently a director of financial advice company, Lombard Private Wealth.
Demoiseau, a 15 year veteran of BNP Paribas, was the chief operating officer of the French company's Australian and New Zealand businesses between 2010 and 2014.
Since departing BNP, he has held senior executive roles in digital transformation consultancies in Sydney.
Demoiseau is currently the principal consultant at Accelera Group, which helps companies automate back end processes and develop customer data strategies.
A raft of Australian fintechs are angling to secure entry-level banking authorisations under APRA's new restricted licensing framework.
They include Go Bank, which is aiming to take on Judo Bank in the small business lending market.
Go is the brainchild of CreditorWatch founders Colin Porter and Dale Hurley who have won financial backing from Nightingale Partners.
Nightingale recently boosted Go's capital base by $6 million following its foundation investment of $1 million earlier this year.
Porter and Hurley's deep experience in the credit data market and their ready access to capital have provoked much discussion among senior bank executives who perceive Go will be a formidable challenger in business lending.
The pathway to a licence is less clear for other aspirants such as Nimble Australia Pty Ltd, which this year hired former National Australia Bank executive Gavin Slater to overhaul the company's operations.
Slater revealed in September that Nimble had entered "early stage" talks with APRA to explore the same-day lender's options for securing a banking licence.
Nimble is trying to reposition itself - like many others in the financial services industry - as a digital destination for millennial customers.
Slater has flagged an expansion of the company's lending activities to include mortgages next year.