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WealthOne Bank’s founding shareholder and vice-chair of the board of directors is Shenglin Xian, president of Toronto-based financial advisory firm Shenglin Financial Group Inc., which deals primarily with insurance products.

Lambert declined to disclose financials or targets for the new bank. But he said the primary client target is Chinese-Canadians. Most recent statistics peg the size of the fast-growing population at 1.3 million, he said, with about 70 per cent living in the greater Toronto and Vancouver markets.

Like other challengers to Canada’s large established banks, WealthOne Bank hopes to win customers with competitive products such as high-interest savings accounts. Lambert said there will be some bricks and mortar offices and outlets, but most of the banking operations are expected to be conducted online and through call centres.

The new bank has been in development since 2012, and residential mortgages are at the forefront of the initial business plan.

The timing may not seem ideal, given recent reports of a housing slowdown in greater Vancouver, and concerns about a potential cooling off of the hot real estate market in Toronto, the new bank’s other major target market.

But Lambert said he and other executives are undeterred.

“We do see these two continuing to be vibrant markets where we see continuing opportunity,” he told the Financial Post.

A report from National Bank Financial published Tuesday said recent data points to declining sales volume and falling average house prices in the greater Vancouver market. The report says the slowdown pre-dated a new land transfer tax levied on foreign buyers in the city, and is affecting areas such as Richmond and Vancouver West, where there is anecdotal evidence of high foreign buyer activity.