PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF METHODS FOR DETERMINING PRICES OF SERVICES

Abstract

The paper discusses pricing policies of commercial banks. From a marketing point of view there are three main methods of estimating prices: a cost-based approach (cost-based pricing, cost-plus pricing, cost-driven pricing), market-oriented approach (customer-driven pricing, value-based pricing) and competitive approach (determined by competitive conditions). The specific structure of banking costs, complexity of banking services and oligopolistic character of competition in banking sectors all together make banks adopt pricing policies comprising all three methods simultaneously. Therefore, pricing is far more complex for financial services compared to other types of services. The article briefly presents the main rationale for pricing, basic types of pricing methods used by universal banks operating in Poland and a review of methods recommended by domestic experts for the banks operating in the Polish banking industry. The aim of the article is to provide both a review of the literature on the pricing methods as applied to the banking services markets and the results of empirical studies concerning implementation of such methods in Poland. The empirical study involves both the analysis of pricing methods used by universal banks operating in Poland (based on the survey of four universal banks operating in Poland) and the experts’ recommendations (based on responses of a selected group of domestic experts in a survey on the subject).