* Increase of 7 pct in customers switching in past year
* Halifax, Santander biggest net gainers
LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - Rules making it easier forBritons to switch banks resulted in a 7 percent increase in thenumber of customers moving accounts in the last 12 months, thePayments Council said on Thursday.
Introduced in 2013, the rule ensure customers can switchaccounts within seven working days with all outgoing andincoming payments automatically transferred.
They are part of measures designed to break the dominance ofBritain's four biggest banks -- Lloyds Banking Group,Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC -- which between them provide more than three-quartersof all UK personal current accounts.
The Payments Council, which oversees the service, said 1.14million switches were made in the year to March 31, up from 1.06million the year before.
More than seven out of ten Britons are aware of the servicecompared with fewer than six out of ten when, it launched thePayments Council said.
Halifax, owned by Lloyds, and Spain's Banco Santander were the biggest net gainers of customers, according tothe data.
Halifax has offered cash awards to tempt new customers,while Santander is offering a better-than-average rate ofinterest to customers with deposits between 3,000 pounds and20,000 pounds. Barclays and NatWest were the biggest net losersof customers during the period. (Reporting by Matt Scuffham, editing by Louise Heavens)