Account Migration Statistics

Ulster Bank and KBC Bank announced their intentions to leave the Irish market in 2021. As a result, customers who had current and deposit accounts at these institutions and continue to need access to these types of accounts will therefore need to seek alternative banking arrangements. The Central Bank of Ireland established a bespoke statistical collection on account migration from the two exiting banks, and the three largest remaining retail banks; Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, and Permanent TSB. The collection monitors the migration activity of all customers, including households and small and medium enterprises (SME), as well as any other counterparty not included in these two groups.

Key Points - Updated 11 July 2023

• As at end-June 2023¹, 17,576 remaining current accounts in Ulster Bank and KBC Bank were deemed by banks as being the customer’s ‘primary’ account. Due to the definition of a ‘primary account’² being backward looking based on the customer’s past activity, the true figure is likely to be even lower. Accounts will continue to be designated as ‘primary’ until the necessary amount of time has passed since their previous transactions.
• Just over 96 per cent of all current accounts that were open in Ulster Bank and KBC Bank at the beginning of 2022, were either closed or inactive as of end-June 2023.
• A total of 33,695 current and deposit accounts were closed in the two exiting banks in the five weeks to end-June³. This is significantly lower than the monthly closures recorded in the first four months of this year, reflecting the reduced number of accounts that remain to be closed, along with the fact that this smaller cohort may include more challenging cases to settle.
• In the eighteen months since the beginning of 2022, the total number of current and deposit accounts closed at these two banks stands at 1,167,219.
• A total of 57,138 accounts were opened in the five weeks to end-June in the main remaining banks, largely unchanged compared to average weekly openings recorded in both April and May. Recent account opening figures seem to be less related to migrating accounts, as the trend in account openings over the past number of months is largely in-line with ‘business as usual’ openings observed in the market between 2019 and 2021. In total, 1,300,813 current and deposit accounts were opened across the three remaining retail banks since the beginning 2022.
• Along with the final publication of the account migration statistics, the Central Bank of Ireland has also produced a short overview of the activity undertaken as part of this process, available here.
• A full breakdown of the data is available in ‘Table A.23 Account Migration Statistics’ below.

[1] ‘End-June’ in this release refers to dates up to and including 30/06/2023.

[2] ‘Primary accounts’ are those that show evidence of being the customer’s main bank account. Such evidence may include a considerable number of customer-initiated transactions and payments received in recent months. This is a designation made by the reporting institutions, according to their own definitions.

[3] Account closures initiated by the exiting banks without the involvement of customers are included in the account closure data.

Summary Charts

Chart 1: Number of Accounts Closed by Week

 Chart 2: Number of Current Accounts Still Open by Activity Level 

 Chart 3: Number of Accounts Opened (Year to Date)