Cumberland Building Society’s current account holders are still the happiest in the UK, according to new research.

This was discovered in research by Fairer Finance, a consumer group which focuses on the banking industry, which carries out surveys on customer satisfaction every six months.

It is the third time in a row that the Cumberland has been at the top of the table.

The mutual achieved an 86 per cent happiness rating, four per cent ahead of First Direct in second place and 12 per cent ahead of Nationwide, the UK's largest building society, in third.

More than 23,000 bank and building society customers across the UK were surveyed for the poll.

Phillip Ward, brand manager at the Cumberland, said: “We’re really pleased to see our customers have rated us so highly again and we’re very appreciative of their continued support.

"However, it’s clear from the table that there are a lot of unhappy bank customers out there. Don’t put up with it, switch to somewhere you can be happy.”

The Cumberland is is one of three building societies based in Cumbria - the others are the Penrith and the Furness - and is the 10th biggest such organisation in the UK. It has more than £2.2bn in assets and more than 140,000 customers

It is the only mutual other than Nationwide to offer a full current account range.

It has its headquarters in Kingstown, Carlisle and has 34 branches. The majority of these are in Cumbria though it also has a presence in southern Scotland, Northumberland and north Lancashire.