Two years after TSB shut its Carmarthen branch on Blue Street saying almost nobody walked through the door, a building society has bought the building and is betting the opposite.
Swansea Building Society announced on Thursday it had purchased the premises beside the bus station and begun converting it into a new Carmarthen office, due to open in early March 2027.
The mutual has been in the town since October 2015, renting at 13 and 14 Lammas Street. It says the 15 staff there will move across and the headcount will grow once the new office opens.
The branch TSB said only three people used
TSB closed the Blue Street branch on 17 September 2024 as part of 36 closures across the UK, telling customers that just three people did their personal banking there regularly and two their business banking, and that 68% of its Carmarthen customers also banked online, by phone or through the app.
The nearest TSB became Union Street in Swansea, 28 miles away, and the TSB name itself is now due to vanish from high streets altogether following Santander’s £2.9bn takeover.
Swansea Building Society’s chief executive Alun Williams said the society had watched that happen. “Over that time, we have also seen a number of high street banks, including Co-op/Britannia, Halifax and TSB, close their branches in Carmarthen,” he said.
“We believe that maintaining a strong physical presence in the town is increasingly important, and our investment in new premises reflects our commitment to providing customers with access to a local, face-to-face service.”
4,284 square feet, and the first building the society has owned in the town
The Blue Street building gives the society around 4,284 square feet, which it says will be “extensively refurbished and redesigned” for customers and staff. The society’s own artist’s impression shows the corner unit in its green and grey livery with the line “opening not closing branches” across the fascia.
Buying rather than renting is the signal, Mr Williams said: “Purchasing our own premises on Blue Street is an important investment in the future of our Carmarthen operation and demonstrates our long-term commitment to the town and its communities.”
Sioned Jones, the society’s area manager for west Wales, has run the Carmarthen office since it opened. She said the site was “prominently located on one of the busiest approaches to the town centre” and would let the team keep up with “increasing numbers of customers visiting from all parts of West Wales, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire”.
The Lammas Street office stays open throughout the works, the society said, and customers can use it as normal until the move.
Against the tide across south west Wales
The expansion runs counter to most of what has happened to bank branches in the region. Gorseinon’s last bank shuts in October, with a shared banking hub opening in its place; Lloyds has had to reverse a cut to Post Office cheque deposits after an MP backlash; and building societies have increasingly been the ones opening counters rather than closing them.
Swansea Building Society is one of the smallest mutuals in the UK and the only one headquartered in Swansea, with branches in Swansea, Mumbles, Cowbridge and Carmarthen.
Work on Blue Street is expected to finish by the end of February 2027.
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