On the high street Nationwide, HSBC (including First Direct and M&S Bank) and Natwest attracted the most switchers, while digital banks Monzo and Starling also grew their customer base.

Financial data company Moneycomms analysed figures from the Payments Council, BACS, and PayUK to calculate the net movement to and from each bank.

Andrew Hagger, founder of Moneycomms, said: “It’s been another storming quarter from Nationwide Building Society putting on a net 38,788 switchers in the first quarter of 2019 and 141,054 in the past 12 months.

“Monzo Bank and Starling Bank continue to lead the charge for the digital challenger banks with both seeing more net new switchers in just over 12 months than Tesco Bank has managed in four years.”

Monzo saw a 7,292 increase in the number of current account holders in Q1 2019 and Starling Bank 5,233. Monzo gained eight customers for each person leaving, and Starling seven.

The pair recently triumphed in a Money Saving Expert survey of smartphone banking apps, while Monzo topped a Which? bank satisfaction survey in December 2018.

Hagger said: “The losers include TSB down a net 13,942 (that’s 63,767 in the last 12 months) no doubt a hangover from its well documented IT issues whilst Halifax down heavily again by a net 19,190, seems to have lost its appeal since cutting its monthly reward payments.”
In total more than 5.9 million bank accounts have now been switched since the launch of the Current Account Switch Service in 2013. The service guarantees all your direct debits and payments are moved across to your new account within seven days.