FCMB Founder Subomi Balogun Dies In London Hospital At Age 89

The founder of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Otunba Subomi Balogun, has died at at the age of 89. Subomi Balogun was a Nigerian Billionaire banker and philanthropist.

Otunba Balogun was said to have died in a London hospital on Friday morning, according to reporting by News Direct.

He was an alumnus of Igbobi College and studied law at the London School of Economics.

The deceased practised as a lawyer at the regional justice ministry and then at the federal ministry of justice until the January 1966 coup.

After the coup, Otunba Balogun ventured into banking and joined the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB).

He pioneered Icon Securities — a subsidiary of NIDB which specialised in merchant banking — as director of operations. He ventured into several commerce and economics firms until FCMB was established in 1979.

He was born in 1934 at Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, to Muslim parents, but converted to Christianity while in secondary school at the Igbobi College.

After earning his law degree at the London School of Economics, Subomi Balogun took on an entire career in Banking.

He worked at the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank after the January 1966 coup.

At NIDB, his interest in investment banking led him to advocate for establishing a 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.

City Securities developed relationships with Mobil, Texaco and Total petroleum marketing companies, handling the company’s equity offerings.

In 1979, he applied for a merchant banking license to establish First City Merchant Bank.

In the year 2001, the name was changed from First City Merchant Bank to First City Monument Bank.