THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF BANKING TRAN VAN BIEN OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN VIETNAM THESIS HO CHI MINH CITY, YEAR 2024 THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF BANKING TRAN VAN BIEN OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN VIETNAM THESIS Major: Finance – Banking Code: 9.01 Scientific advisor: Advisor: Associate Prof. HA QUANG DAO Ho Chi Minh City, July, 2024 CHAPTER 1. Rationale Microfinance plays an important role in poverty alleviation and socio-economic development in developing countries (ADB, 2016; Legerwood, 2013; Chowdhury, 2009). Although there are still many MFIs that have depended on subsidies and external funding in Vietnam and in the world since 1990.
The Grameen Bank, Accion International (ACCION), and Card Bank world models have proven that microfinance activities can develop and serve the poor without subsidies. After three decades of formation and development, microfinance in Vietnam has achieved success in contributing to socio-economic development and improving the lives of people in general, especially the poor. However, despite their successes in reaching the poor, Vietnamese MFIs are still not sustainable (Quach Manh Hao, 2005). Also, the majority of microfinance institutions in Vietnam have achieved the target of operational self-sustainability, but the results are not high and uneven (Nguyen Kim Anh and Le Thanh Tam, 2013).
Therefore, the issue of sustainable development of microfinance institutions has been considered one of the significant topics of people to microfinance practitioners, managers, and donors (Duflos, 2013). Thus, the sustainable microfinance development has been considered an important goal of Vietnam's microfinance industry in the process of integration and development. Microfinance institutions were built to enrich intermediary financial institutions along with traditional financial institutions to provide borrowers with small amounts of money by overcoming transaction costs in the credit market of credit institutions, residential communities, and households. MFIs' innovative lending terms and lending methods help them ensure high repayment rates for loans to the poor.
According to Labie (2001), most MFIs claim to have a dual mission of reaching customers and being financially efficient. The management effectiveness of an organization is evaluated well when it simultaneously achieves all set goals (Helms, 1 2006). However, Abate, Borzaga et al (2014) argue that it is still a huge challenge for profits to be offset by high debt repayment rates and to maintain financial services for the poor on a low-cost basis for most microfinance service providers. Therefore, microfinance organizations must simultaneously implement financial and social goals which is a great pressure for these organizations.
In Vietnam, there have been many studies analyzing the financial efficiency and community outreach of MFIs. However, research on the ability of microfinance institutions to ensure equality of both financial efficiency and community support goals in Vietnam is still very limited. MFIs in Vietnam often have small customer sizes ranging from a few thousand to about 20,000 people except for the Compassion Fund (TYM) with more than 73,000 customers and the CEP fund with about 193,000 people (Tam, 2013). Each credit officer manages an average of 205 customers of which the highest number of recognized customers is more than 900 customers.
However, if it is compared with MFIs with equivalent capital scale in the world, the customer scale or ability to serve the community of MFIs is much smaller. The study also shows that MFIs lack legal status and face pressure to maintain low lending interest rates, due to competition with the Bank for Social Policies making these organizations unable to capable of covering their own operating costs and depending on preferential capital from non- governmental organizations as well as international donors. By the end of 2019, the average number of customers of Vietnamese microfinance institutions was 157,313 people. However, the number of customers participating in specific transactions at each microfinance institution often has large differences, depending on the subjective and objective practical factors of each microfinance institution.
The question is whether Vietnam's MFIs are making trade-offs between social goals and financial goals to maintain a certain level of financial efficiency in the face of competitive pressures. painting or not? And whether Vietnam's MFIs making trade-offs between social goals and financial goals to maintain a certain level of financial efficiency in the face of 2 competitive pressure or not. Also, this demand must be answered in terms of considering the scale and market share of microfinance institutions. The research contributes to providing a basis to support administrators in operating microfinance institutions providing references for adjusting administrative policies and declaring the organization's goals.
In the case of the operational efficiency of microfinance institutions in Vietnam is still limited and not sustainable, the ability of microfinance institutions in Vietnam to ensure harmony between the two goals of financial efficiency and community support is still limited. The study of "Operational efficiency of microfinance institutions in Vietnam" is a necessary issue to make policy and management recommendations to improve operational efficiency and balance the goals of Target financial efficiency with community support of MFIs in Vietnam.2 Objectives of the study 1.1 General objectives The general objective of the study is to research the operational efficiency of MFIs in Vietnam in the period 1999-2019; Also, the study detects inadequacies to make policy and management recommendations to improve the operational efficiency of MFIs in Vietnam. Specific objectives To achieve the above general goal (then), the study needs to achieve specific research goals including: First, research the impact factors and measure the level of impact of the factors on the self-sustainability of microfinance institutions in Vietnam. Next, research the trade-off between community outreach goals and the operational efficiency of MFIs in Vietnam.
Finally, policy recommendations aim to improve operational efficiency and balance financial efficiency goals, with the level of community support of MFIs in Vietnam. Research questions 3 To achieve specific research objectives, the study needs to address the following research questions: 1. What factors affect the self-sustainability of microfinance institutions in Vietnam? 2. What is the level of impact of factors on the self-sustainability of microfinance institutions in Vietnam? 3.
Is there a community outreach goal and performance goal of MFIs in Vietnam? 4. What is the level of impact of community outreach goals on the performance goals of MFIs in Vietnam? 5. What policies and measures need to be implemented to improve operational efficiency and balance operational efficiency goals with community support of MFIs in Vietnam? 1.4 Scope and limitations of the study 1.1 Scope of the study The objective of the study is the operational efficiency of Vietnamese microfinance institutions.2 Limitations of the study In terms of space: The study researches the operational efficiency of MFIs in Vietnam that is considered from two aspects: - The first aspect: identify factors affecting the self-sustainability of these organizations' operations. - The second aspect: research on the trade-off between community outreach goals and operational efficiency of these MFIs.
The group of microfinance institutions studied includes official microfinance organizations and semi-formal microfinance organizations. In terms of time: The study was conducted with data collected from 1999 to 2019, based on data published by MIX Market.5 Methodology of the study 4 To achieve the research objectives, the author uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Depending on each specific research objective, each research method is applied appropriately. Qualitative research methods are used to systematize theoretical foundations and make hypotheses for research including theoretical analysis and synthesis methods based on theoretical foundations to build a research model, document review, and observation.
This method uses a multi-dimensional analysis of the operational efficiency of microfinance institutions: operational efficiency, financial self-sustainability, institutional self-sustainability, and other operational aspects. Quantitative methods are applied to measure factors affecting performance. The study is based on previous theoretical and experimental research as a basis. Then, the author builds a model to estimate the relationship between factors to determine which factors have an impact; There is an element of community outreach to the operational efficiency of Vietnamese MFIs to create a basis for evaluating research hypotheses.
The thesis uses fixed effects and random effects models and the selected least squares (GLS) estimation method to overcome the phenomenon of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation that exists in the estimated model quantity. Contribution of the study 1.1 Academic contribution of the study The study researches the operational efficiency of microfinance institutions from two perspectives and measures specific factors affecting operational self- sustainability. On the other hand, the study researches the trade-off of outreach goals with performance. The study builds a model to measure factors affecting self-sustainability and test those factors.
The study contributes to improving the content of theoretical foundations, on the relationship between community outreach goals that impact on the operational efficiency goals of MFIs. 5 The study provides practical evidence of the relationship between community outreach goals and performance goals. Specifically, the study provides evidence on the relationship between measuring the breadth of community outreach goals, influenced by market share and capital size of MFIs, and operational efficiency. Practical contribution Firstly, the study desires to make useful suggestions for microfinance institution managers based on the research results to practically contribute to improving the operational efficiency of these organizations during the period.
Second, the study also aims to provide several recommendations, with scientific and practical basis, for macro management agencies, related to the process of building, adjusting, supplementing as well as improving institutions has a direct impact on the operational efficiency of microfinance institutions. Table of contents The study has 5 chapters with the following specific content: Chapter 1: Introduction. Chapter 2: The overview of operational efficiency of microfinance organizations Chapter 3: Model and Methodology Chapter 4: Research results Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations 6 CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF PERFORMANCE OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS 2. Microfinance organization’s activities 2.
The concept of microfinance Microfinance has been understood as the provision of micro-credit services, micro- savings services, micro-insurance services, payment intermediary services, and other non-financial services for poor households, low-income individuals, and micro- enterprises to stabilize their lives, improve their income, help them escape poverty and rise in society. The concept of microfinance organization According to the Law on Credit Institutions No. 47/2010/QH12 of Vietnam, “Microfinance institutions are a type of credit institution that mainly carries out several banking activities to meet the needs of individuals and households with low income and micro enterprises” (Clause 5, Article 4, Chapter 1). The classification of microfinance institutions • Formal sector • Semi-formal sector • Informal sector 2.
The activities of microfinance organizations • Micro-credit services • Micro-savings service • Micro-insurance services • Payment services • Non-financial services of microfinance institutions 2. The role of microfinance organizations Regarding the financial aspect, through the process of providing financial services, microfinance institutions perform important functions of (i) mobilizing savings; (ii) reallocating savings for investment, and (iii) creating favorable conditions for trade in 7 goods and services, becoming an effective tool to reduce poverty and increase income. In terms of social aspects, MFIs create opportunities for rural people, especially the poor, to access financial services, increase their participation in community life in general, and strengthen their capacity. The operational efficiency of microfinance organizations 2.
The concept of operational efficiency Efficiency is a widely used category in all economic, technical, and social fields. In a market economy, one of the criteria to evaluate the success of MFIs is operational efficiency. According to Aubyn et al (2009), efficiency is essentially a comparison between the inputs used in some activity and the results produced. Efficiency in economics is the correlation between inputs of scarce factors and outputs of goods and services, this is a concept used to consider how well resources are distributed by the market (Nguyen Khac Minh, 2004).
According to Coelli et al (2005), an economic unit operates more efficiently than another economic unit if it can provide more products without using more resources than the other unit.