Thousands switching from Scottish banks

The trend has been illustrated most starkly at Royal Bank of Scotland which suffered a net loss of 9,162 accounts in the three months to September 30, 2016.

Earlier this month Edinburgh-based RBS and its subsidiary NatWest said it was slashing the rate of cashback for Reward current accounts customers from three per cent to two per cent from June.

They are also introducing a requirement of a minimum monthly deposit requirement of £1,500 for new customers.

A spokesman for RBS said: “There has been a significant reduction in the number of people switching away from us.

“We are constantly looking to improve our service to customers.

“We recently introduced a new feedback system to listen directly to our customers and act on their feedback.

“Our Reward account is our fastest growing, with over 1.7m customers benefiting from over £100 million in Rewards since it launched.”

Other Scottish banks such as the Glasgow-based Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group have also seen a mini exodus, with 7,716 account holders choosing to look elsewhere for better terms.

Barclays, meanwhile, recorded a net loss of a massive 21,008 as banks across the UK saw some 248,302 people switch between January and March 2017, according to payments body Bacs, which oversees the current account switch service.

This was higher than the 208,387 switches that took place between October and December 2016.

The biggest winners were Halifax, which made a net gain of more than 28,000 current accounts being switched to it between July and September 2016.

Nationwide gained just under 26,000 customers who moved their accounts.

The figures follow recent moves by several banks to make current account perks less generous.

In August 2016, Santander announced a three per cent rate on its flagship 123 current account would be halved to 1.5 per cent from November 1 2016.

It said the changes were due to “the market expectation of interest rates staying lower for longer”.

Lloyds has also cut its rate from four per cent to two per cent, while TSB is reducing its rate from five per cent to three per cent.

Halifax dropped its £5 monthly reward payment on its Reward current account to £3 in February.

Edinburgh-based Tesco Bank , however, has moved to take measures to retain its customers by guaranteeing to maintain a three per cent rate on current accounts until April 1 2019, while Nationwide Building Society is continuing to offer a five per cent rate.