The theory and practice of competition has traditionally been of interest to economics for many centuries. The problem of competition appears as one of the global issues of economic theory. Banking competition is a dynamic process of competition between commercial banks and other credit institutions, within which they seek to secure a strong position in the banking services market. This is one of the types of market competition, which is formed as credit institutions carry out monetary, investment, settlement and payment and other activities related to the creation and sale of their products and services on the banking market. The competitiveness of a commercial bank is identical to its competitive potential as a set of competitive advantages, the use of which automatically means achieving superiority. At the same time, the competitive position of a bank is determined not only by the quantity and quality of its competitive advantages, but also, first of all, by the scale of the segments of the financial market, covered by interbank competition. The problem of a reliable assessment of banking competition in the banking market is of particular relevance in connection with changes in the institutional structure of the banking sector. In the scientific literature there is still no unambiguous interpretation of the concept of "competitiveness", the methods and tools for its assessment differ. For the Republic of Moldova, the fiercest competition in the banking business is an objective reality, which is constantly increasing as the network of credit institutions and other various financial institutions develops. Despite numerous studies devoted to the problem of competitiveness in economic activity, some issues related to the specifics of banking activities have not yet been sufficiently studied. In this regard, the article investigates the theoretical foundations of the development of competition, summarizes various approaches to the definition of banking competition and identifies their inherent advantages and disadvantages, analyzes methods for assessing banking competition, investigates approaches to assessing the competitiveness of banks, examines various methods for assessing the state of competition, studies the features of competition in banking sector.