Costing in Banking Service
Journal of Money, Investment and Banking ISSN 1450-288X Issue 6 (2008) © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2008 http://www.eurojournals.com/finance.htm
Costing the Banking Services: A Management Accounting Approach
Jordi Carenys Professor at the Management Control Department. EADA Business School EADA, c/o Aragó 204, 08011 Barcelona, Spain E-mail: jcarenys@eada.edu Tel: 934 520 844; Fax: 933 237 317 Web: www.eada.edu Xavier Sales Professor at the Management Control Department. EADA Business School E-mail: xsales@eada.edu Abstract The present study aims to outline the characteristics of the cost systems used in banking institutions. It does so by describing the partial costs and full cost systems in banking institutions. It then looks at the limitations of these approaches to the current competitive conditions and goes on to consider the applicability of the activity based costing system in the allocation of indirect transformation costs to branches, products and customers. Finally, we will look at the findings of a questionnaire to Spanish savings banks in order to evaluate how widespread these systems are and how they are used in savings banks. We found that direct costs systems predominate in customer and products entries whereas full costs systems are much more widespread in the case of branches. Furthermore, we also found that the use of activity based costs systems is very limited.
Keywords: Saving banks Cost structure Management accounting Cost systems Activity based costing. JEL Classification Codes: M41 – Accounting G21 - Banks; Other Depository Institutions.
1. Introduction
Historically, management accounting in banking institutions was introduced considerably later in comparison with companies in other sectors. There are a number of reasons for this limited development. This was due, on the one hand, to external causes. For example, it was not until the 80 's that competitive conditions in the banking sector fostered the development of accounting
Costing the Banking Services: A Management Accounting Approach
Jordi Carenys Professor at the Management Control Department. EADA Business School EADA, c/o Aragó 204, 08011 Barcelona, Spain E-mail: jcarenys@eada.edu Tel: 934 520 844; Fax: 933 237 317 Web: www.eada.edu Xavier Sales Professor at the Management Control Department. EADA Business School E-mail: xsales@eada.edu Abstract The present study aims to outline the characteristics of the cost systems used in banking institutions. It does so by describing the partial costs and full cost systems in banking institutions. It then looks at the limitations of these approaches to the current competitive conditions and goes on to consider the applicability of the activity based costing system in the allocation of indirect transformation costs to branches, products and customers. Finally, we will look at the findings of a questionnaire to Spanish savings banks in order to evaluate how widespread these systems are and how they are used in savings banks. We found that direct costs systems predominate in customer and products entries whereas full costs systems are much more widespread in the case of branches. Furthermore, we also found that the use of activity based costs systems is very limited.
Keywords: Saving banks Cost structure Management accounting Cost systems Activity based costing. JEL Classification Codes: M41 – Accounting G21 - Banks; Other Depository Institutions.
1. Introduction
Historically, management accounting in banking institutions was introduced considerably later in comparison with companies in other sectors. There are a number of reasons for this limited development. This was due, on the one hand, to external causes. For example, it was not until the 80 's that competitive conditions in the banking sector fostered the development of accounting
References: 52 [20] Journal of Money, Investment and Banking – Issue 6 (2008) INNES, J., MITCHELL, F [39] [40] [41] [42] Journal of Money, Investment and Banking - Issue 6 (2008) [43]