PAYMENT INNOVATIONS IN POLAND: THE ROLE OF PAYMENT SERVICES IN THE STRATEGIES OF COMMERCIAL BANKS

Abstract

This paper examines the significance of innovations in the area of payment services for strategies implemented by commercial banks in Poland. We propose a definition of payment innovations and present the evolution of their introduction in the Polish market, indicating the impact of legal regulations and the critical character of the new FinTech phenomenon. The analysis that we conducted was based on the results of a survey which obtained responses from 24 commercial banks representing almost the entire Polish retail banking sector based on the number of personal accounts maintained. The study helped to determine the main elements of the strategies implemented by banks in Poland. It also revealed the methods for competing in the area of payment services utilized by the banks, with innovative services as one of the leading elements. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant differentiation of applied strategies depending on a bank’s size. In the case of larger banks, the main motivation for introducing payment innovations was characteristic of an offensive strategy, and for smaller banks — more often a defensive one. We also proposed a theoretical model for using the specific nature of payment innovations to build customer relationships and to apply cross-selling.