One non-bank entity with its eyes on a banking licence in Australia might be making progress with an application before APRA.Wayne Byres, chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, indicated to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics last week that "thinking of an application we have in the process at present—that is looking to own an ADI; it has the financial capacity to support the bank, because it is a large organisation and a relatively small institution. "So it has the financial resources should the bank [get] into difficulty."Firstmac, a Queensland-based lender with a long history in mortgage funding is one non-bank that's made fresh noises about its interest in a banking licence. Firstmac has around A$8 billion in assets and $52 million in equity.Byres was providing context to the current passion of some members of the House of Representatives Economics Committee for an easier path to registration of new banks. The APRA chair also rattled through a number of topics it considers when assessing applications under the "national-interest test", and latitude on waiving the 15 per cent shareholder limit for banks."Usually the case, particularly for smaller start-ups, is that there is no concentration of economic power so that is not an issue that might be against the national interest," Byres said. "We obviously do checks on the individuals who will run the bank."Anything that would be seen to be coming in to improve competition would generally be a tick. "The fourth issue is really the financial standing and health of their potential organisation and whether that organisation, and in particular the owners of the organisation, have the financial capacity to support the bank if it gets into difficulty. That is usually where the sticking point is," he said.