[1] First Bank was founded in 1894, by Sir Alfred Jones, but is currently owned by First HoldCo PLC, which in itself has diversified ownership with over 1.3 million shareholders.

The new structure resulted in a stronger platform to support the group's future growth ambitions domestically and internationally.

[20] The bank originally served British shipping and trading agencies in Nigeria.

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.

The bank primarily financed foreign trade, but did little lending to indigenous Nigerians, who had little to offer as collateral for loans.

After the end of the Nigerian civil war, Nigeria's military government sought to increase local control of the retail-banking sector.

The bank had 1.3 million shareholders globally, was quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), where it was one of the most capitalized 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.

Its most recent international expansion was the opening in 2004 of a representative office in Johannesburg, South Africa.