Almost 700k accounts were still open at KBC and Ulster Bank at the start of December, with just months remaining until the two banks close their Irish operations.

Customers have been shutting accounts at a rate of nearly 19,000 a week, new figures from the Central Bank show. The closure rates peaked in the second week of October when 12,724 current accounts and 15,130 deposit accounts closed.

So far this year, 635,000 new current accounts and 247,000 deposit accounts have been opened at the remaining Irish banks.

The most recent figures for the week ending December 2 show that 11,390 current accounts and 5,442 deposit accounts were closed.

The Central Bank said: "This represents a decline of 11% compared to the weekly closure rate in October and brings the total number of accounts closed in the 11 months to end-November to 558,636."

In Association with

At the end of November, 674,780 accounts remained open in Ulster Bank and KBC Bank - a reduction of 12% compared to end-October and a decrease of 45% since the beginning of the year. Of the 392,812 current accounts that remain open, 280,744 were deemed by the banks to be active accounts.

A spokesman for KBC Bank Ireland said: "The bank continues to support customers at every turn, through appropriate communication and engagement, ensuring they have all the information they need, understand the actions they need to take, and the timelines associated with those actions.

"The current account closure process will take place in regular monthly cycles and is expected to continue until August 2023."