More than 20 thousand business current accounts remain open with both Ulster bank and KBC Bank as they prepare to leave the Irish market.

The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland is urging small to medium size businesses to take action on moving bank accounts and establishing new banking arrangements.

The call comes following Central Bank figures which show 23 thousand main business current accounts remained opened at the end of October.

Chief Executive, of the Federation Brian Hayes said while there has been significant progress made by the industry in transferring hundreds of thousands of customer accounts there is still a lot of work to be done, especially in relation to SME's.