ONE of Wales’s leading financiers died at his St Brelade home on Saturday.

Sir Julian Hodge, who was 99, founded the Commercial Bank of Wales in 1972 and nine years later he finally won a long battle with authorities to call it the Bank of Wales.

Later on, Sir Julian founded Julian Hodge Bank, which his Jersey trust still owns.

In 2002 it was voted the 19th ‘soundest’ bank in an assessment of 1,000 global institutions.

Sir Julian was also an active philanthropist.

In 1962 he established the Jane Hodge Foundation, which funds religious and educational causes and builds children’s and old people’s homes, in honour of his mother, and he generously supported Cardiff University and other institutions in South Wales.

Sir Julian moved to Jersey in 1966 to alleviate his bronchitis and he soon made many friends in his adopted home.

His generosity was not limited to Wales and he supported many causes in the Island.