BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM ADVANCED PROGRAM GRADUATION THESIS FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CREDIT RISK LEVEL OF COMMERCIAL BANKS: EVIDENCE FROM THE VIETNAMESE BANKING SECTOR Student: Nguyen Duc Hien Class: K23CLC-NHA Academic years: 2020 – 2024 Student ID: 23A4010822 Supervisor: Nguyen Bich Ngan, PhD. Hanoi, April 2024 BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM ADVANCED PROGRAM GRADUATION THESIS FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CREDIT RISK LEVEL OF COMMERCIAL BANKS: EVIDENCE FROM THE VIETNAMESE BANKING SECTOR Student: Nguyen Duc Hien Class: K23CLC-NHA Academic years: 2020 – 2024 Student ID: 23A4010822 Supervisor: Nguyen Bich Ngan, PhD. Hanoi, April 2024 i DECLARATION I, Nguyen Duc Hien, as the author of this thesis, hereby declare that this thesis entitled “Factors influencing the credit risk level of commercial banks: Evidence from the Vietnamese banking sector” is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no duplicated material previously published or written by another person that are used as academic resource of analysis or results, nor duplicated material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or equivalent institution. This thesis has been checked for plagiarism by the Turnitin platform, with the originality report attached at the end of this thesis.
I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, to the extent that the assistance from Mrs. Nguyen Bich Ngan, PhD. as my supervisor in this thesis is acknowledged. Where applicable, any part of this thesis containing materials by others has been explicitly identified in the References that are listed at the end of this thesis or in the form of citations, mentions, in correct format as regulated by the Banking Academy of Vietnam.
Any views expressed in this thesis are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Banking Academy of Vietnam, or any other organization or member within the institution. Hanoi, April 26, 2024 Author Nguyễn Đức Hiển ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis is the final work of mine as an undergraduate of the Banking Academy of Vietnam, a student of the Banking Faculty, of the Advanced Program. After a journey of four years long, with many highs and lows that mostly are exciting and thrilled, I acknowledge that I had use for this thesis not just my knowledge, my heart and passion, my uncertainty and worries, but also the great support and assistance of so many people around me. This thesis is a dedication and appreciation for all that help me along the way.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mrs. Nguyen Bich Ngan, PhD., whose expertise, understanding, and patience, added considerably to my graduate experience. I appreciate her vast knowledge in the related field of finance and banking that my thesis is conducted in, as her assistance for guiding me through questions that my limited understanding can barely self- answer. This is also an acknowledgement to the Banking Academy of Vietnam, and various professors, lecturers, peers from other faculties and generations of seniors and juniors, for letting me know that great opportunities can only be found in the most unexpected moments, with the most passionate people, and at the most decent places.
With pride, a part of me will always stay with the BAV. I would also like to thank the committee members, in the thesis defense afterwards, for their valuable comments and suggestions. Along with completing this thesis, I appreciate the experience with NH Securities Vietnam, and MB Ly Thai To branch, as they gave me lessons, stories, guidance, and vibrant views of careers that I would never forget. I am immensely grateful to my parents and family members for their unconditional support and encouragement throughout my studies.
And a vehement thank-you to my little sunshine that is always around me to support even from dusk till dawn. This accomplishment would not have been possible without you. Thank you all, for everything. Hanoi, April 26, 2024 iii ABBREVIATIONS No.
Abbreviation Full meaning 1 BCBS Basel Committee on Banking Supervision 2 NPL Non-Performing Loans 3 SBV State Bank of Vietnam 4 SOCBs State-Owned Commercial Banks 5 JSCBs Joint-Stock Commercial Banks 6 POLS Pooled Ordinary Least Square 7 FEM Fixed Effects Method 8 REM Random Effects Method 9 FGLS Feasible Generalized Least Squares 10 GMM Generalized Method of Moments 11 MENA Middle East and North Africa 12 GIPSI Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy 13 GCC Gulf Cooperation Council 14 CESEE Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European 15 BIS Bank for International Settlements 16 PSMOR Principles for the Sound Management of Operational Risk 17 ICT Information, Communications and Technology 18 GDP Gross Domestic Products 19 MIC Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communications 20 RWA Risk-Weighted Assets 21 CLRM Classical Linear Regression Model 22 VIF Variance Inflation Factor 23 CCB Capital Conservation Buffer 24 CCyB Countercyclical Capital Buffer Source: Author summarized. iv CONTENTS DECLARATION. iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. Rationale of the research.
Objectives of the research. Subjects, Scope, and Limitations of the research. Structure of the research .5 CHAPTER I: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK & LITERATURE REVIEW. Indicator addressing the credit risk.
Factors influencing the credit risk level .18 CHAPTER II: DATABASE & RESEARCH PROCESS. Description of the Data sources. Research model specification .27 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH RESULTS. Pooled OLS regression.
FEM/REM regression. Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) regression. Brief analysis about the results .37 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS. Summary & Implications of empirical results.
Recommendation for Vietnamese commercial banks. Recommendation for the State Bank of Vietnam. Recommendation for the Vietnamese government .61 v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLE Pages Table 1. Classification of debt and off-balance sheet 8 commitments according to quantitative methods Table 2.1: Summary table of variables and expectations 24 Table 3.1: Data summary 30 Table 3.2: Correlation coefficients 31 Table 3.3: Tests for Pooled OLS 32 Table 3.4: Multicollinearity test results (VIF) 33 Table 3.5: After-corrected Multicollinearity test results (VIF) 34 Table 3.6: Combined results of regressing methods 34 Table 3.7: Breusch & Pagan - Lagrangian multiplier test for random effects 36 Table 3.8: Wooldridge test for Autocorrelation in REM 36 Table 3.9: Cross-sectional time-series FGLS regression 36 Table 3.10: New capital requirement (BASEL III, 2017) 45 Table 3.11: Comparing capital requirements between BASEL III and the 49 current Vietnamese regulations INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the research For a bank-based economy like Vietnam, the commercial banking sector’s conduct greatly influences Vietnamese economic and social prosperity. In most cases, banks provide credit to sustain for firms in the manufacturing, agricultural, commercial and service sectors, providing jobs and enhancing purchasing power, consumption, and savings. Hence, the risk of credit failure can lead to a bank’s collapse, and have a profound effect on a country’s societal structure and can rapidly resonate globally (Caruso et al. A recent study, with the sample consisting of 28 out of 35 Vietnamese commercial banks in 2009–2018, conducted by Pham and Daly (2020) showed that “credit risk is the main cause of bad debts of the Vietnamese banking system and coexists with banking operations”.
The first capital requirement framework of the Basel Committee, which was also called as “the BASEL I Accord” in 1988, identified that “credit risk is the major risk of banks among others”, and was determined “to set a framework mainly for assessing capital in relation to credit risk”. In Vietnam, net income from credit activities held the largest portion of total revenue of Vietnamese commercial banks (SBV Annual Report, 2018). Therefore, in the context of Vietnam, obviously credit risk also plays a pivotal important role in the banking sector. From past literature, there are many factors of macroeconomics and bank-level that have been so commonly affecting the level of credit risk, therefore, this should be an equation of a much more complex relation beside those factors.
* From the macroeconomic perspective Financial institutions are affected by non-performing loans (NPL), but these NPLs are also shaped by the state of the economy. Since the last global financial crisis in 2008-2010, many researchers have been exploring the key reasons and factors that worsen the banking industry as a whole. Vietnam needs not to be careless and should learn from both the Asia and the global financial crises that had happened in the past, and from there, the foundation for experience and preparation for another chaos could be solidified, and help the banking sector to avoid another similar event. The need for 2 more research to explain the macroeconomic factors on the NPL is widely recognized in the academic field.
* From the banking-internal perspective An obvious fact is that the credit risk level of a commercial bank is not only affected by the external factors, but also from the inside of the banks. For the perspective of the managers of the bank, the need for analyzing the way profitability and solvency indicators interact with the credit risk is necessary so that they can deteriorate their strategies and supervise the non-performing loans to maintain the bank’s operation and efficiency. In the context of the recent development era of the banking industry, a novel trend of digital transformations and technology adaptation can now be seen in most of the commercial banks all over the world. These trends might bring a positive future and lead to a revolution that would transform the very age-old traditional basis of the banking services to a new form that we had never seen before, or they could be a not- yet fully supervised, unsecured door for various threat of risks to enter and danger to the pivotal pillars of banking - one of which is the credit risk level of a commercial bank, especially.
Today, the final answer to this doubt remains uncertain. The impact from digitalization on credit risk management is also affected by which type of commercial banks are mentioned. Jin et al. (2020) had proved that during the digital transition era, many major financial institutions, including state- owned commercial banks (SOCBs), typically have the ability to make substantial and comprehensive investments, leveraging their strengths in capital, technology, and skilled personnel.
On the other hand, smaller and medium-sized banks benefit from their ability to make quicker decisions and adapt more swiftly, giving themselves a competitive edge. Therefore, to which side will the use of technology bring more positive outcome is a question worth discussing. Jin et al. (2020) noted that: large commercial banks have significantly reduced their own risk levels and improved risk tolerance ability after financial technology applications, and the improvement is better than that of small and medium banks.
Objectives of the research * General objectives The overall aim of this is to analyze the factors influencing credit risk level of the Vietnamese commercial banks. * Specified objectives (1) To gather and solidify the literature framework about the effect of macro, micro factors on the NPL level of commercial banks, therefore to find the most suitable regression model for the research. (2) Analyze the data and make initial conclusions about the regression results. (3) Propose recommendations to improve the current situation of NPL in Vietnamese commercial banks.
* Research questions To achieve those general and specific objectives, this study would focus on resolving these research questions below: (1) Do the macroeconomic factors have a significant role on the NPL level of Vietnamese commercial banks? If those do, then how do those factors influence the NPL? (2) Do the internal factors of Vietnamese commercial banks have a significant role on the NPL level of those banks? If those do, then how do those factors influence the NPL? Are there any differences due to the size of the banks, or due to the application of BASEL III? (3) What recommendations are applicable and have the potential to materialize for the current situation of the NPL level of Vietnamese commercial banks? 4 3.