The founder of First City Monument Bank, Subomi Balogun on Friday morning died at the age of 89.
According to the information from a verified source, Mr Balogun died in a London hospital.
Subomi Balogun is one of the pioneers of investment banking and indigenous financial entrepreneurship in Nigeria
He was born in 1934 at Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria. Balogun graduated from Igbobi College and studied Law at the London School of Economics. Before leaving for Europe, he briefly worked as a teacher.
After earning his law degree, he returned to Nigeria to join the Ministry of Justice, Western Region. From the regional Ministry of Justice where he was a Crown Counsel, Balogun found a new post as a Parliamentary Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice.
After the January 1966 coup, he joined the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank. At NIDB, his interest in investment banking led him to advocate for the establishment of merchant bank sponsored by NIDB. When ICON securities, a merchant banking outfit was established in 1973 as a subsidiary of NIDB, Balogun moved to ICON Ltd as a director of operations.
When Balogun’s ambition to head ICON was not realised, he left the firm to found City Securities, a stock broking and issuing house.
In 1982, he applied for a merchant banking license to establish First City Merchant Bank. It is the first local bank in Nigeria to be established without government support.
In 2001, the name of First City Merchant Bank changed to First City Monument Bank, following FCMB’s transformation to a universal bank.