Swansea Building Society has renewed its commitment to Mumbles by signing a new long-term lease on its premises and committing to a significant investment in refurbishing the branch – all as it celebrates the branch’s milestone 10-year anniversary.
The branch, which has been trading since 2010, achieved another excellent year in 2020 with savings balances reaching over £52 million. This helped Swansea Building Society as a whole reach a new record of £386 million in savings balances on deposit at the end of December 2020.
The investment seen in the branch included the refurbishment of all three floors and shortly will see an electronic screen installed at the front window to give customers more information about the Society’s products and services.
The success of Swansea Building Society’s Mumbles branch is seen as proof that its ethos of dealing with customers on a face-to-face basis really works. As a result of this, it has been able to expand its network of branches in recent years to reach Carmarthen and Cowbridge and to relocate to bigger premises in Swansea while keeping its head office open in Swansea. A strategy which is in contrast with the high street banks, which continue to close branch offices across Wales.
In Mumbles specifically, HSBC and NatWest have both closed in the area since Swansea Building Society opened there and Barclays is now closed on a Wednesday. Lloyds Bank is the most recent to announce its intention to close its Mumbles office, with the final day of business being 21 March 2021.
Alun Williams, CEO said: “We have seen a lot of changes to the banking world in the Mumbles, with HSBC being replaced by Greggs and NatWest being replaced by Coco Blush – as well as the imminent closure of Lloyds.
“With our culture of ‘Opening not Closing branches’, our ethos has always been that we deal with our customers in a way that they want and not what they are forced to adopt. With all our branch offices having a front-line mortgage manager and friendly and experienced cashiers on site, we are able to deal with our customers on a face-to-face basis, being ready to handle their requests in a personal manner.
“By keeping the human touch alive in all our branches, we have found this to be the main catalyst to our continued success as the society grows year on year. We are looking forward to the next 10 years in the Mumbles branch and would like to thank all our customers for their ongoing support which is essential as we continue to maintain a banking presence in the Mumbles area.”
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