Santander, Nationwide and Halifax among switch winners

Figures, published six months in arrears, show that Santander made a net gain of around 51,000 customers using the switching service between July and September.

Meanwhile, Barclays made a net loss of more than 25,000 customers and Lloyds Bank shed more than 10,000 customers.

RBS made a net loss of more than 11,000 customers during the period and sister bank NatWest lost more than 15,000 customers. HSBC made a net loss of more than 8,000 customers.

Closer to home, Ulster Bank lost 1,365 accounts whil Danske dropped by 466.

Halifax made a net gain of more than 11,000 customers using the service during the period and Nationwide piled on more than 15,000 customers.

Newer players such as Tesco Bank and TSB also made net gains.

The figures were published by payments body Bacs, which oversees the current account switching service, launched in 2013.

The figures relating to individual banks and building societies only cover people switching their account using the service - and not those who switch outside the service.

The service was launched in 2013 - and March 2016 saw the highest number of monthly switches, at 124,615.

Overall, there have been more than 2.8 million switches so far under the scheme.

Bacs said 309,678 switches took place during the three months from January to March 2016, showing a 20% increase in the number of switches completed compared to the fourth quarter of 2015 and 10% more than the same period last year.

The switching service means that people can now complete their switch in seven working days - compared with up to 30 working days before the service was introduced in 2013.

All outgoing and incoming payments are automatically swapped over to the new account for those using the switching service and a guarantee means that people will not be left out of pocket if something goes wrong with the switch.