Nigeria no doubt is mourning her great loss in the death of Otunba Subomi Balogun, the founder of First City Monument bank (FCMB) whose death occurred in the early hours of friday 19th May, 2023 in a London hospital. It will be recalled that the business mogul celebrated his 89th birthday in march 2023.

The FCMB boss was born in Ijebu-Ode on 9th march, 1934 as Olasubomi Olanipekun Olaotan Balogun with a royal blood flowing in him as a direct descendant of Awujale, the Ijebu-Ode Monarch. Subomi's educational career took him to Igbobi College and after a short time of teaching, he proceeded to London School of Economics where he studied law and was called to English Bar in 1959.

After his law degree, Pa Subomi returned to his country where he started to work with the Ministry of Justice, under the then Western Region where he became Crown Counsel. Thereafter, he moved over to the federal ministry of Justice as a Parliamentary Counsel..

Subomi Balogun made his incursion into the business, especially, finance and banking industry with his move to Nigeria Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) as principal counsel and company secretary. This no doubt prepared him for the exploits he later made in the finance sector later in life.

He later got trained by world class finance institutions like International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) that later became world bank, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC); as well as by world-class stockbrokers, investment banks and merchant banks in New York and London.

in 1979, after his exploits of spearheading Icon Securities as director of operations— a subsidiary of NIDB with specialty in merchant banking, and exploring many enterprises in the commerce, finance and economy sub-sectors, he founded FCMB, a leading banking firm in Nigeria in 1979, and the first bank to be founded by an individual.