Since after the financial crisis, banking industry has been adapting with regulatory changes as part of the compliance requirements. Ten years later the industry is still required to further optimize their business models and become more digitally enabled, to achieve that bank's will be required to identify innovative partners to assist them in their new journey.

Despite the need to mature digitally the banking sector is also required to deliver sustainable profitability, according to E&Y survey the global banking industry is expecting double-digit revenue growth by end of 2019 rising to 31% over the next three years. The survey highlighted the different growth strategies adopted globally , for instance the American bank's are investing in increasing market share and digital capabilities and they are also increasing fee income. The Asian banking strategies varied between inorganic growths in overseas market, domestic market positioning and trade initiatives to support their growth plans. On the other hand European banks are more focused to improve financial performance through automation.

In recent years overall cost in the banking industry saw a slight drop, but still remained at higher levels comparing it to the periods before the financial crisis. whereby the average cost-to–income did not change much since the last ten years, however the industry saw increased cost of compliance, legacy systems, and loan restructuring and lawsuits. The survey claims that bankers expect 2.1% cost increase in the next three years due to cyber security and change in business models. The net interest income has seen an increase of more 15% in some of the regional operating banks and expected to see further increase; nevertheless rate increases has their own consequences. High interest rates will result in payment defaults, NPA’s and subsequently increasing the cost of credit.

FinTech will be one additional cost factor that banks will need to endure to prevent customer leakage and preserve value chain, E&Y’s FinTech adoption index 2017 reported that money transfer and payments services through FinTech platforms rose from 18% in 2015 to 50% in 2017.Surprisingly the trends are common across the global banking industries, the competitive threats are evolving and will impose additional operational cost to the industry.

To incipient the precise business model that benefit business, operational and organizational strategies the local bank's must understand how different technologies will support to achieve the ultimate growth strategy. In comparison to global banking digitalization provisions the local banks are not even in a transition stage, therefore the local banks are required to allocate ample budget towards their technology investments in the coming years.

In conclusion, the banking sector in Oman will need to simplify internal processes and seek collaborations with external utilities, platforms and managed services, which will result in establishing a foundation for a new banking ecosystem.