MINISTRY OF EDUCATION TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY ----oOo------- LÂM NGỌC YẾN TRADE FINANCE CENTRALIZATION IN A VIETNAMESE BANK: THE CASE STUDY OF BIDV Major: Banking and Finance Major Code: 60.12 MASTER OF BANKING AND FINANCE THESIS Supervior: Dr. LÊ THÀNH LÂN Ho Chi Minh City - 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Commitment We would like to commit that this thesis is our own research which is supervised by Dr. Le Thanh Lan. The research’s content and result are honest and have not been published in any other research work.
The content of the thesis has used information and materials from the books, writings and websites posted in the reference herein. Ho Chi Minh city, 12th December 2011 Lâm Ngọc Yến i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Abstract Centralizing trade finance operations in foreign banks are usual cases but a revolution for Vietnamese banks because of the difference in banking scales, internet technology and culture standard. To investigate a model of trade finance centralization in a local bank, a case study of BIDV is useful. The thesis focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the model and contributing to build up a perfect one by analyzing data collected from BIDV’s branches and their customers.
According to the finding results, centralizing trade finance operations is supported by most of staff members at branches; however, it is a little bit confused to comment on the quality of the services which focused on long processing time, inaccuracy of some transactions an inflexibility in handling transactions. The study also aimed to build up a better model to solve these issues for sustainable development of trade finance centralization. This model was not only an improved solution for BIDV, but also a reference model for other Vietnamese commercial banks to consider in their trade finance centralization’s strategy. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Acknowledgements I am heartly thankful to my research Supervisor, Dr.
Le Thanh Lan, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. This thesis would not have been possible without his enthusiastic support. I am indebted to many of my colleagues in BIDV who help me during the collection of data as well as support me during my research. My special gratitude is extended to all instructors and staffs in The Faculty of Finances & Banking and The Postgraduate Faculty, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) for their support and the valuable knowledge during my study herein.
My deepest and most sincere gratitude goes to my beloved parents, my husband Mr. Nguyen Anh Duy, my son Nguyen Lam Duy Phu, for their boundless support, abundant love and encouragement throughout my period of study. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who helped me in any respect during the completion of the study. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Table of Contents COMMITMENT.
iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY. Research Objectives and Questions. Scope and Limitations: limit in a case of BIDV. Implication of Research.
Structure of the study. 6 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Definition of Trade finance .1 Trade finance facilitation:. Trade finance operations.
Trade finance centralization in banks.1 Definition of trade finance centralization.2 Advantages to trade finance centralization .3 The effect of centralization on the staff members and customers. 20 CHAPTER 3: INTRODUCTION TO BIDV. Overview of BIDV. BIDV general financial status.
25 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. International Banking Operations and trade finance operations. Introduction to Trade Finance Centre (TFC). Functions and tasks.
Relationship between TFC and Branches in handling Trade finance operations. 30 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Overview about methodology. Sample selection, data collection method and analysis.
Schedule of survey. Data collection and analysis. 40 CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH RESULTS. Evaluation of BIDV staff members.
Evaluation of BIDV customers.3 The links between the analysis results and the research model. Expected model of TFC. The current model of TFC. Reference model of TF centralization.
Suggested model of TF centralization for BIDV. 63 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Other recommendations for BIDV.4 Recommendations for other Vietnamese banks. 82 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Appreciations and Definitions BIDV: Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam BG: Bank guarantee BL: Bill of lading EX: Export Forex Dealing: Foreign exchange dealing IM: Import IT: Internet Technology LC: Letter of credit LIBOR: London Interbank offered rate SG: Shipping guarantee TF: Trade finance TFC: Trade finance centers URDG: Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantee VAS: Vietnamese Accounting standards VCB: Vietcombank – Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam Vietinbank: Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade WTO: World Trade Organization PUT OPTION: An option contract giving the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specified amount of an underlying security at a specified price within a specified time.
This is the opposite of a call option, which gives the holder the right to buy shares. MARGIN CALLS: A broker's demand on an investor using margin to deposit additional money or securities so that the margin account is brought up to the minimum maintenance margin. Margin calls occur when the account value depresses to a value calculated by the broker's particular formula. vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of Tables Table 1.
The structure of chapter 1.1: Trade finance fee income .1 Summary of the questionnaires. Expectations of staff members.1: Description of suggested model of trade finance centralization .Relations between departments in TFC and between TFC and branches 67 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com List of Figures Figure 1.1: Correlation between LC usage and Trade volumes .1: Trade finance strategy implementation at banks. Expected cost savings from Trade finance centralization. Research model……………………………………………………… 22 Figure 3.
The transaction model between TFC and branches. Distribution of experts. Level of satisfaction. Mistakes and complaints.
Advantages and disadvantages of trade finance centralization.7 Trade finance services used by customers. The qualification of BIDV’s staff members in trade finance services consultancy. Processing time of TF transactions. The accuracy of TF transactions.
55 ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1. This chapter provides a general introduction for the current study which includes seven sections. The study, as a whole, begins with a general introduction in section 1. The rationale for this study is drawn in sections 1.3 which are the problem statement as well as the research objectives and questions.
In addition, section 1.4 discusses the scope and some limitations while section 1.5 briefly discusses the general aspects of research method of this study, section 1.6 provides the implication of research and section 1.7 introduces the structure. The structure of chapter 1 is provided in Table 1. The structure of chapter 1. Research objectives and questions 4.
Scope and limitations 5. Implication of research 7. Structure of the research 1. Trade finance refers to financing international trading transactions, in which the importer’s bank performs the paying for goods imported, acting on behalf of the importer (1).
Trade finance includes various ways in which international trade is financed by banks such as documentary credit, collection, bank guarantee, etc. Historically, trade finance operations were developed and brought benefits to banks. Nevertheless, trade finance is a flat market. Despite tremendous growth in the volume of international trade, the use of trade finance tools is flat.
Actually, today the total value of trade guaranteed with letter of credit is similar to the value in the 1950s (WTO, ICC, Celent). In fact, there is a negative correlation between the growth of international trade and LCs’ usage. Today the total value of trade LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 guaranteed with LCs is similar to the value in the 1950s (see Figure 1. This strongly reflects the fact that, in their current shape, trade finance tools are not very well suited to the requirements of companies conducting international trade.
Banks have not been able to benefit from the tremendous growth of international trade to increase the volume of business in their trade finance department.1: Correlation between LC usage and Trade volumes Moreover, executing trade finance services across countries poses risk management and audit challenges. It is difficult to keep track of what all the trade finance agreements say and to maintain a comprehensive view of contingent exposures (The Royal Bank of Scotland – Global Transaction services). Therefore, in order to improve this service, most of major banks in trade finance (i. ABN AMRO, Citibank, JP Morgan, etc.) have already changed their trade finance operations to avoid risks and acquire new market share.
Most of them have already centralized their trade finance operations and offer outsourcing services to other financial institutions. Their purpose is to involve in wholesale LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 banking and become financial factories for regional banks which will eventually become their distributors. However, regional banks still have some trump cards in their hand to avoid exiting this business. In order to compete in the trade finance space, regional banks need to leverage their existing assets such as customer relationship, granular networks, and expertise by centralizing their trade finance operations.
Referring the background of Vietnam in the recent years, according to UK Trade & Investment, Vietnam has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The average GDP growth rate of the country in the period 2006 – 2010 was 6.9%, beating the target of 6. The country growth was the highest in the ASEAN. In addition, according to the route of joining the WTO, from the end of 2007, Vietnam opened its financial market.
Thus, the years 2006 and 2007 were a boom of activities in banking industry as well as in the capital and real estate markets, leading to the dominance of state-owned commercial banks and joint- stock commercial banks. At the end of June 2011, Vietnamese banking sector includes The State Bank of Vietnam, 5 state-owned commercial banks, 37 joint stock commercial banks, 48 foreign banks’ branches, 5 foreign banks (100% foreign owned), 5 joint venture banks, and some other types of financial institutions (http://www. Thus, the competition of international trade finance operations becomes sharply when foreign banks and financial institutions are allowed to fully operate. Moreover, Vietnamese banks are less experienced than foreign banks in this field.
So, to survive in the strict competition, most of Vietnamese banks choose to apply the model of trade finance centralization which is a usual case in global leading banks. Centralizing trade finance operations is considered as a good way of the revolution in Vietnamese banks towards the fierce competitions from international banks. However, it is not easy to perform as there are many differences in terms of banking scales, IT platform, and culture standard. In theory, centralizing trade finance operations is a key to avoid outsourcing and risks.
Vietnamese banks are researching and following up the movement. This result LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 of the revolution cannot be guessed as it is on test. Meanwhile, a case study can be done to evaluate the model. It is found that the case of Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam is essential to be considered.
Among the four biggest stated-own commercial banks in Vietnam (namely Vietcombank, Vietinbank, BIDV and Viet Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) which accounted for 75% of Vietnamese market share in banking system (according to The State Bank of Vietnam), BIDV has involved in trade finance activities in the early time. After years researching benefits of trade finance centralization, BIDV decided to test and apply the model.