Chief Subomi Balogun, the founder of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Group is dead. He was aged 89.

Checks revealed that the top banker died in London, United Kingdom on Friday morning, according to sources.

Profile of late Subomi Balogun

The business magnate clocked 89 on March 9. Born in 1934 at Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. He attended Igbobi College and studied Law at the London School of Economics and later 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 he 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 companies equity offerings.

In 1979, he applied for a merchant banking license to establish First City Merchant Bank. Balogun was inspired by the entrepreneurial works of Siegmund Warburg, who co-founded S.G. Warburg, he visited Warburg in London prior to establishing his merchant bank.

He often tells the anecdotal story of how his son inspired him to take the leap in starting the bank. When the operations of the bank took effect in 1983, Balogun established an entrepreneurial culture at the new bank, unique as an owner managed bank in contrast to the government owned banks at the time.

Balogun built a National Pediatric Centre in Ijebu-Ode that he donated to University of Ibadan’s, University College Teaching Hospital.