Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale for measuring the construct perceived value, as evaluated by customers of retail banks. Design/methodology/approach – The procedures involved an analysis of the literature about customer perceived value in order to identify the main dimensions relevant to bank sector, and after that, it was followed the conventional steps for developing multiple items scales, with fieldwork, scale purification exploratory analysis of reliability and of validity. Findings – After two sampling procedures, the scale for the account holder perceived value retail banking was satisfactorily validated. The final scale is characterized as multidimensional, involving dimensions of operational quality, convenience and access, safety and soundness, and monetary sacrifice, each of them measured with four items reflectively related to the main construct. Research limitations/implications – Although the research was carried considering the conventional scaling procedures recommendations, the result may reflect the specificities of Brazilian bank customers; considering this, some other applications are necessary do bring a geographical validation of the scale. Practical implications – The scale developed is an instrument that can be used to measure one of the most important constructs of bank customers, the customer perceived value, and can be used by academic researchers and also by bank managers. Originality/value – The study brings a contribution not yet present in the main international literature, since no other study with complete development of a multidimensional perceived value measurement scale was identified, and can become a reference for other similar studies in the banking context.