Measuring Competition in Banking Sector in Oman

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study was to investigate and measure the competitive environment in the banking sector in Oman.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This study considered an effort towards measuring the nature of competition of 12 out of 16 Omani banks from 2009 to 2019 over applying Panzar and Rosse (PR-model). It measured the competition index, called H-statistic, as it gives a quantitative assessment of the competitive nature of the studied market. The non-structural model was adopted to measure the competitive behavior of the banking sector. The data was taken from Muscat Securities Market (MSM) over obtaining financial statements of banks and data was tested using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Findings: The result showed that it was not able to reject the monopolistic competition that H value considered between values of zero and one for the banking market in Oman. Thus, Omani banks operate under monopolistic competition.

Practical Implications: The study has interesting policy implications. It is recommended to encourage foreign banks' presence to enhance the competitive condition of the banking sector thus making sure the exit and entrance of banks in the industry raise the competition.

Social Implications: The flexibility in the competitive condition of the banking sector will lead to increase competition so this will produce a variety of services and products to improve the banks’ performance and customer satisfaction.

Originality/value: This is the first study of its kind in studying and testing the competitive environment for the banking sector in Oman using the PR-model.