New figures show that AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB have been the big winners. They have added 1.2 million new current and deposit accounts since the beginning of last year.
Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland are both winding down their operations in this country and customers have since closed their accounts and moved to the remaining banks here.
Central bank figures show that at the end of last month, 92 percent of current accounts at the two outgoing banks were closed or inactive.
In the four weeks to the end of April, a total of 104,758 current and deposit accounts were closed at the two withdrawing banks.
This is an increase of 21 percent compared to the corresponding four-week period to the end of March, the Central Bank said.
In April, a total of 44,172 accounts were opened at the other banks, 11 percent less than the previous month.
AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB have seen a surge of people opening new accounts with them in the past year or more.
“A total of 1,200,810 current and deposit accounts have been opened with the three remaining retail banks since the beginning of 2022,” the Central Bank said in its latest update on account opening and closing.
At the end of April, some 33,095 current accounts at Ulster Bank and KBC Bank were regarded by the banks as the customer’s ‘primary’ account.
But the Central Bank warned that the actual figure is likely to be even lower, as the definition of a “primary” account looks back at the customer’s past activity.
Accounts will be classified as “primary” until the necessary time has elapsed since their previous transactions, the Central Bank said.
In April, Ulster Bank closed its last remaining 63 branches.
The closure of the remaining branches brings Ulster Bank one step closer to completing its exit from the Republic.
It will continue to operate here for a while, but it will focus almost entirely on winding down its business now that it has effectively ended its public activities.
In January, 25 Ulster Bank branches closed as part of the sale of loans and some branches to Permanent TSB, and are reopening as Permanent TSB branches.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that the Bank of England intends to reject neobank Revolut’s pending application for a banking license in the UK.
Five top employees, including the chief financial officer, left this year.
