Less than 50% of Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) customers would recommend its customer service to friends and family, according to rankings from the Competition and Markets Authority, which has published its first set of results.

The figures have been released in a bid to increase competition in the banking sector and RBS, along with Clydesdale, came in at the bottom. There are 16 banks in the rankings for personal accounts.

RBS also came in at the bottom for business banking, out of 14 banks.

A review of retail banking in August 2016 by the competition watchdog required lenders to publish customer ratings figures twice a year.

Customers were asked how likely they would be to recommend their bank on a number of measures, such as overall customer service, online and mobile banking, overdrafts and services in branches. With regards to overall quality of services, 49% of RBS personal customers would be likely to recommend the banks to friends and family. Clydesdale also scored 49%.

However, First Direct, which is owned by HSBC, came top with 85% of its customers satisfied with its overall quality of services.

RBS business banking saw just 47% of its customers claiming that it would recommend the bank to friends and family in terms of overall service quality, while Handelsbanken came top with 84%.

A spokesperson for RBS told the BBC that: “We are aware we have more work to do in order to improve our service standards and deliver a better experience for our customers.”

The spokesperson added that the bank is “investing in improving the products and services we offer our personal and business customers” through its UK paperless mortgage and its digital lending platform for small businesses, Esme.

It is compulsory for the results from the survey to be displayed in banks’ branches, websites and mobile apps from today.

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