First Bank of Nigeria

First Bank of Nigeria
Public
Industry Finance
Founded 1894 (as Bank of British West Africa)
1979 (Renamed FirstBank of Nigeria)
Headquarters 35, Marina Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria
Key people
Mrs. Ibukun Awosika
Chairman
Urum Kalu (UK) Eke, MFR
Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings
Dr. Adesola Adeduntan
Group Managing Director/CEO
Gbenga Francis Shobo, ACA
Deputy Managing Director
Dauda Lawal
Executive Director, Public Sector North
Products Financial Services
Revenue IncreasePretax:542.5 million (NGN:86.2 billion) (2012)
N303,008,336,100.67
N215,448,660,002
Total assets N3,450,112
Number of employees
 7,616
Website Homepage

First Bank of Nigeria, sometimes referred to as FirstBank, is a Nigerian multinational bank and financial services company. It is the country's largest bank by assets.[1]

Overview

As of December 2014, the Bank had assets totaling approximately US$23.4 billion (NGN:4.336 trillion).[2] The Bank's profit before tax, for the twelve months ending 31 December 2014 was approximately US$486.5 million (NGN:90.1 billion). At that time, the bank maintained a customer base in excess of 10 million individuals and businesses.[3] First Bank of Nigeria has solid short and long term ratings from Fitch, the Global Credit Rating Company, partly due to its low exposure to non-performing loans. The Bank has strong compliance with financial laws and maintains a strong rating from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria.

Subsidiaries

The subsidiaries of First Bank of Nigeria include the following:[4]

FBN Holdings

Due to changes in Nigerian banking laws, following the recession of 2007-2009, the FirstBank Group re-organized itself into business groups under a holding company, FBN Holdings Plc. Bello Maccido, who was Executive Director (Retail, North) of FirstBank, became the CEO of the new parent company. He is now succeeded by Urum Kalu Eke as Group Managing Director, formerly Executive Director (South) of FirstBank. The shares of FBNHoldings are listed on The Nigerian Stock Exchange. The business groups of FBNHoldings are:

  1. Commercial Banking – includes First Bank of Nigeria Ltd and all its commercial banking subsidiaries: FBNBank (UK) Ltd with branch in Paris, France, FBNBank DRC, FBNBank Ghana, FBNBank Gambia, FBNBankGuinea, FBNBank Sierra-Leone, FBNBank Senegal, First Pension Custodian Limited, FBN Mortgages Limited.
  2. FBNQuest – FBNQuest is the brand name of the Merchant Banking and Asset Management businesses of FBN Holdings Plc, which comprises FBN Merchant Bank Limited, FBN Capital Limited, FBN Securities Limited, FBN Capital Asset Management Limited, FBN Trustees Limited, FBN Funds Limited and FBN Capital Partners Limited.
  3. Insurance – The Insurance business group covers our insurance-related subsidiaries: FBNInsurance, FBN General Insurance and FBN Insurance Brokers. The business group offers Life and General insurance services as well as insurance brokerage services.

History

Pre-independence

FirstBank traces its history back to 1894 and the Bank of British West Africa. The bank originally served the British shipping and trading agencies in Nigeria. The founder, Alfred Lewis Jones, was a shipping magnate who originally had a monopoly on importing silver currency into West Africa through his Elder Dempster shipping company. According to its founder, without a bank, economies were reduced to using barter and a wide variety of mediums of exchange, leading to unsound practices. A bank could provide a secure home for deposits and also a uniform medium of exchange. The bank primarily financed foreign trade, but did little lending to indigenous Nigerians, who had little to offer as collateral for loans.

Post-independence

In 1957, Bank of British West Africa changed its name to Bank of West Africa (BWA). After Nigeria's independence in 1960, the Bank began to extend more credit to indigenous Nigerians. At the same time, citizens began to trust British banks since there was an 'independent' financial control mechanism and more citizens began to patronise the new Bank of West Africa.

In 1965, Standard Bank acquired Bank of West Africa and changed its acquisition's name to Standard Bank of West Africa. In 1969, Standard Bank of West Africa incorporated its Nigerian operations under the name Standard Bank of Nigeria. In 1971, Standard Bank of Nigeria listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and placed 13% of its share capital with Nigerian investors. After the end of the Nigerian civil war, Nigeria's military government sought to increase local control of the retail-banking sector. In response, now Standard Chartered Bank reduced its stake in Standard Bank Nigeria to 38%. Once it had lost majority control, Standard Chartered wished to signal that it was no longer responsible for the bank and the bank changed its name to First Bank of Nigeria Limited in 1979. By then, the bank had re-organized and had more Nigerian directors than ever. In 1991 the Bank changed its name to First Bank of Nigeria Plc following listing on The Nigerian Stock Exchange. In 2012, the Bank changed its name again to First Bank of Nigeria Limited as part of a restructuring resulting in FBN Holdings Plc (“FBNHoldings”), having detached its commercial business from other businesses in the FirstBank Group, in line with the requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria. FirstBank had 1.3 million shareholders globally, was quoted on The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), where it was one of the most capitalised companies and also had an unlisted Global Depository Receipt (GDR) programme, all of which were transferred to its Holding Company, FBN Holdings in December 2012.

In 1982 FirstBank opened a branch in London, which it converted into a subsidiary, FBN Bank (UK), in 2002. Its most recent international expansion was the opening in 2004 of a representative office in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2005 it acquired FBN (Merchant Bankers) Ltd. Paribas and MBC International Bank Ltd, a group of Nigerian investors, had founded MBC in 1982 as a merchant bank, and it became a commercial bank in 2002.

In June 2009, Stephen Olabisi Onasanya was appointed Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, replacing Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who had been appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Onasanya was formerly Executive Director of Banking Operations & Services. He retired on 31 December 2015 and Dr. Adesola Adeduntan took over as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, First Bank of Nigeria Ltd and Subsidiaries effective 1 January 2016, with Gbenga Shobo as Deputy Managing Director.

Leadership


See also

References

  1. ↑ List of Licensed Commercial Banks In Nigeria
  2. ↑ Total Assets In December 2014
  3. ↑ Audited 31 December 2014 Financial Statement
  4. ↑ Subsidiaries of First Bank of Nigeria
  5. ↑ First Bank of Nigeria Acquires Congolese Bank
  6. ↑ [Acquisition of ICB Takes First Bank to Four Countries FBN Bank Acquires ICB Assets In Four West African Countries]

External links

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