The founder of the First City Monument Bank Group, Otunba Subomi Balogun, has given tips for success in the banking profession with a piece of advice to chief executive officers and other key officials of financial institutions in the country to uphold professionalism.
Beside professionalism, he also advised those at the helm of the various banks and other financial institutions to place premium on ethical conduct and promote the culture of excellence in all their undertakings.
Speaking during a chat with journalists in Lagos on Thursday, Balogun said, “Using my personal story as a guide, I will advise the young people running the banks in the country to uphold professionalism, engage in ethical conducts, nurture the culture of excellence and have faith in God.
“They should not do anything that will be anti-corporate governance and things that will be against the laws of the land or that they cannot defend. They should have courage of conviction and should never compromise on integrity.”
Tracing the history of the 30-year old FCMB, the founder said the journey had been an interesting one having started as an investment bank with only branches in Lagos and Kano, and later transformed to retail and commercial banking-led group with 271 branches nationwide and a presence in the United Kingdom and a representative office in South Africa.
Balogun said his dream was for the bank to be among the top five in the country not only in terms of size, but through first class services that would be anchored on cutting edge technology.
“In Nigeria currently, there is a crying need to bring banking services to the computer and mobile telephones. That is the direction that I see FCMB going. I want the average citizen not to see the bank as elitist, but to accept our slogan of ‘My bank and I.’ We want to be the bank with state-of-the-art Information Technology services,” he said.
Balogun, who retired from the day-to-day management of the bank on the eve of his 70th birthday nine years ago, said the bank was not yet half way to where he as well as the board and management wanted to take it to.
He said, “The CEO’s dream is wider than mine and all I can do now is to offer advice whenever I am asked, to provide guidance and ask questions if I see that my shares are going down on the stock exchange.
“Success without a successor is no success. I had set age 70 as my retirement age earlier on and put in place a good succession plan, and that is why the bank has continued to grow even after my retirement.”
Looking back at the achievements of the FCMB Group, Balogun said he was happy that he took up the challenge of being the first Nigerian to establish a wholly indigenous banking institution in the country, even when nobody believed he could succeed.
His satisfaction, he said, stemmed from the fact that many former and current bank CEOs and executive directors in the country passed through the FCMB and imbibed its culture of excellent services and integrity.