Permanent tsb said today it had opened 34,000 new current account in the first six months of the year after its decision to abolish all transaction charges for current account customers.
The bank said 23,000 of the new current accounts were opened for new customers, while the remaining ones were upgrades from basic ATM accounts.
The bank said the new accounts represented a "massive increase" on the volume of accounts opened in other years.
"For example in the whole of 2003 the bank opened up 18,000 current accounts while in the 12 months of 2004, the bank opened up 35,700 current accounts - similar to the numbers opened in just six months this year," it said.
Permanent tsb head of marketing Niall O'Grady said the introduction of the agreed code on switching by the Irish Bankers Federation had played a role in encouraging switching but that the abolition of normal transaction charges had been the key factor.
Mr O’Grady said: "The real importance of the switching code has been the extent to which it encouraged people to think about shopping around. But in fact of 23,000 new customers opening current accounts, only 7,000 used the code during the process".