BUILDING society boss Chris Pilling wants the rules for switching current accounts changed to make it as easy as downloading an app onto a mobile phone.

The chief executive of Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society is campaigning as the group considers rolling out its Norwich & Peterborough cheque account to all customers.

He has met chancellor George Osborne, shadow chancellor Ed Balls and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and will continue to lobby politicians and financial regulators to change the rules to encourage more people to switch accounts.

YBS will not expand its current account until switching is speeded up and made easier.

Chris Pilling said: “The ongoing reviews into the current account market represent a unique opportunity to overcome the big banks’ self-interested resistance to change.

“The existing current account switching service has failed to tackle the dominance of the big banks and raise the quality of the current account market. The banks’ self-interested opposition to greater reform resulted in a seven-day switching service and since its introduction we believe only three per cent of accounts have been switched.

“Switching your current account provider should be as easy as downloading an app to your phone. We urge the Financial Conduct Authority and the new Payments Regulator to make this a top priority and commit within the next year to implementing full current account portability. Only then will consumers be able to benefit from a truly diverse financial services sector.”

YBS announced record results for 2014 – its 150th anniversary year.

It recruited more than 260 mainly local staff, taking the workforce at the UK’s second largest building society to 4600. YBS lifted core operating profit by 18 per cent to £178.8 million while achieving record gross mortgage lending of £7.6 billion and record net lending of £2.6 billion. The group retained a strong capital position, increasing total capital ratio to 16.1 per cent.

Highlights included providing loans for a record 8,200 first time buyers. YBS paid savers an average interest rate of 1.6 per cent against a market average of 1.34 per cent.

The £11 million refurbishment of its principal office on Rooley Lane, Bradford, was completed and the site now houses around 1,500 staff.

“I am proud that in our 150th anniversary year we continued to deliver on the fundamental aims of our founding fathers – to help people save for the future and buy their own home.” Investment would deliver long-term value over the next 150 years, he added.