Swansea Building Society has signed a new long-term lease on its Mumbles premises, committing to an investment in refurbishing the branch.

The investment included refurbishment of all three floors and plans for an electronic screen installed at the front window to give customers more information about the Society's products and services.

The branch, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, achieved savings balances reaching over £52 million in 2020. 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 Society said.

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."

Swansea Building Society says it sees the success of its Mumbles branch as proof that its ethos of dealing with customers on a face-to-face basis works. 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.

HSBC and NatWest have both closed in the area, with Lloyd's Bank announcing its final day of business being in Mumbles as 21 March this year.