UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC INSTITUDE OF SOCIAL STUDIES HOCHIMINH CITY THE HAGUE VIETNAM THE NETHERLANDS VIETNAM - NETHERLANDS PROGRAMME FOR M. IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DETERMINANTS OF NONPERFORMING LOANS THE CASE OF VIETNAMESE BANKING SECTOR A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS By TRUONG NGOC THANH Academic Supervisor DR. NGUYEN THI THUY LINH HO CHI MINH CITY, DECEMBER 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Determinants of nonperforming loans – The case of Vietnamese banking sector ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the case of Vietnamese banking sector by analyzing the unbalanced panel data of 30 Vietnamese banks over the period of 2008 – 2012. Both of macroeconomic and bank-specific determinants are employed when modeling the regression of NPLs’ determinants.
Macroeconomic factors including Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate, unemployment rate, real lending interest rate and sovereign debt are exogenous variables that effect on NPLs. Besides that, the study examine the bank-specific determinants by analyzing relevant hypothesis such as ‘bad management’, ‘pro-cyclical credit policy’, ‘skimping’, ‘diversification’, ‘too big to fail’, ‘moral hazard’ hypothesis. According these hypotheses, return on equity, inefficiency rate, proportion of non-interest income and leverage ratio are the endogenous variables which effect to NPLs. In addition, credit growth rate is added into model to examine its effect on NPLs.
Moreover, the effects of government intervention and foreign investment on NPLs are also examined in this study by investigating the difference in NPLs of state-owned banks and fully foreign-owned banks. The fixed effect of unbalance panel data is employed to test these hypotheses. Regarding bank-specific factors, the inefficiency rate and credit growth rate statistically affect on NPLs. However, return on equity, non-interest income rate, leverage ratio do not statistically significant effect on NPLs.
According to regression result, it shows the negative and significant relationship between the inefficiency rate and NPLs that is consistent with ‘skimping’ hypothesis. Moreover, the relationship between credit growth and NPLs is significant and negative. As the regression result, all of macroeconomic determinants including GDP growth rate, unemployment rate, real lending interest rate and sovereign debt statistically significant affect on NPLs. The regression shows the positive and significant relationship between the sovereign debt and NPLs which is consistent with hypothesis.
The increase in sovereign debt will reduce payment ability that increases the future NPLs. However, the regression shows the positive relationship between GDP growth rate and NPLs and negative relationships between the unemployment rate, lending interest rate and NPLs that is not consistent with hypothesis. Truong Ngoc Thanh – Class 19 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Determinants of nonperforming loans – The case of Vietnamese banking sector Regarding the government intervention, the regression shows that return on equity and leverage ratio are affected in state-owned bank that lead to higher NPLs. However, the effect of foreign investment in fully foreign-owned banks on NPLs is not supported in this study.
There are some policy implications based on the regression results. Firstly, the sovereign debt should be strictly control in order to enhance the payment ability of debtors. Secondly, the underwriting and monitoring loans process should be controlled to reduce NPLs expansion at bank level. Finally, the operations of state-owned banks should be controlled to reduce NPLs expansion in state-owned banks.
Truong Ngoc Thanh – Class 19 Page ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Determinants of nonperforming loans – The case of Vietnamese banking sector TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Overview of Vietnamese banking sector and non-performing loans. Research objectives and research question. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Non-performing loans definition. Bank-specific determinants of non-performing loans. Macroeconomic determinants of non-performing loans. Government intervention and foreign investment in banking system.
16 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND DATA. 23 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS RESULTS. Main findings and policy implication. Limitation of the study.
41 Truong Ngoc Thanh – Class 19 Page i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Determinants of nonperforming loans – The case of Vietnamese banking sector LIST OF TABLE Table 1: Definition of variables used in modeling NPLs determinants. 17 Table 2: Specific calculation of variables. 22 Table 3: Methodology test. 24 Table 4: Descriptive statistics.
25 Table 5: The correlation matrix. 26 Table 6: Summarize NPLs. 27 Table 7: The regression result. 28 Table 8: Regression result of dummy variables.
29 Table 9: Empirical evidence for tested hypothesis. 34 Truong Ngoc Thanh – Class 19 Page ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Determinants of nonperforming loans – The case of Vietnamese banking sector CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Overview of Vietnamese banking sector and non-performing loans There are three types of ownership in Vietnamese banking sector including state-owned commercial banks, joint stock commercial banks, foreign banks (Kalra, 2012). State-owned commercial banks play an important responsibility in international financial by lending to main sectors in Vietnamese economy.
In particular, loans of trade and industry sectors central is granted by Bank for Industry and Trade (ViettinBank) while foreign payments is in-charged by Bank for Foreign Trade (VietcomBank). In additional, loans of agriculture and fishing are supported by Bank for Agricultural Development (AgriBank). Concerning the bank market share, state-owned commercial bank account for large bank market share in 2010 (Kalra, 2012). Besides that, the growth of joint stock commercial banks also contributes in the banking sectors throughout their financial services.
In Vietnam, banking sector is under the control of government throughout the State bank operations. Besides the financial responsibility, some duties of state-owned bank are expected. In particular, loans of main sectors in the economy are financed by state-owned commercial banks. In addition, money supply and demand are controlled by state bank by opening the market operation, reserve system, bank rate policy.
Moreover, all regulation as well as guideline of banking operations must be complied with state bank’s regulation. The Vietnamese banking system is significantly impacted by the economic depression over the period of 2008 – 2012 which leads to NPLs expansion. The main cause of bank problem is the deterioration of loan portfolio. As the same situation with international banking system, Vietnam experienced with a period of the housing bubble and rapid growth in the stock market.
Allowing easy access to loans and rapid credit growth, Vietnamese banking sector had to face with the credit exposure when economy went down. According to report of State Vietnamese Bank, the loan portfolio significant increased from 2005 to 2007. Specially, the credit growth rate was 52.42% in 2007 that doubly increases comparing with this in 2006. In addition, high unemployment rate in period of economic downturn strongly impact to the payment debt ability.
Moreover, the weakness of Vietnamese banking sector is one cause that expand the problem loans. Excessive loans, loose credit policy assessment, less mortgage loans, lose control in loan monitoring are the problems of Vietnamese banking sectors. Truong Ngoc Thanh – Class 19 Page 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Determinants of nonperforming loans – The case of Vietnamese banking sector As the consequence, the NPLs rate was 3.4% in 2012 which doubly increases comparing with this in 2009. Many reactions were implemented by State bank of Vietnam to solve the bank’s NPLs.
The number of policies was implemented including increasing capital adequacy ratio to 9%, increasing restriction for lending credit, establishing Vietnam asset management company (VAMC), buying NPLs of weak banks, restructuring weak banks, issuing new loan classification, etc. In addition, minimum of charter capital of banking sector was increased. Interest rate ceilings were re-imposed to control operation of banking sector as well stable the economy. However, the NPLs rate was not significantly improved.
According the World Bank’s report, the NPLs declined to 3.107% by the end of 2013 because of transferring bad loans to the VAMC. However, the NPLs in 2013 also emphasizes that this rate could be 9% if all restructured loans were included (Mellor, Minh, & Thuc, 2014). In the other sides, according to rating agency Moody’s estimation, NPL could be higher and exceed 15% in the case of implement international standard assessment. The concern of NPLs was raised in Vietnamese banking sectors in recent years.
In addition, the root cause of NPLs of bank’s sector was examined to find out best measure for NPLs solving. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to examine the determinants of NPLs in the case of Vietnamese banking sector in order to find out the appropriate policy implication for solving banking NPLs. Research problem Reviewing empirical studies, there are many approaches to examine the determinants of NPLs. On the one hand, macroeconomic factors could be employed to evaluate their effect on NPLs.
Berge and Boye (2007) conclude that real interest rate and unemployment are highly sensitive with the problem loans. They find out that one of primary contribution in real interest rate and unemployment rate improvement is the problem loans’ declining (Berge & Boye, 2007). Besides that, according to study of Reinhart and Rogoff (2011), they made conclusion that NPLs could be considered as the one root cause of banking crisis. According International Monetary Fund working paper, basing on the NPLs in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, the research indicates that strong feedback of macroeconomic condition including GDP growth, unemployment and inflation on NPLs (Klein, 2013).
The econometric result suggests GDP growth is one of the macro explanatory of NPLs. Besides that, the significant linkage between macroeconomic condition and NPLs is also supported by the Truong Ngoc Thanh – Class 19 Page 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Determinants of nonperforming loans – The case of Vietnamese banking sector investigation of determinant of NPLs of 85 banks in three countries including Italy, Greece and Spain (Messai & Jouini, 2013). However, this approach does not consider the effect of banking specific variables that illustrate the characteristic of each bank, which generates different effect on the risk exposure at the bank level. On the other hand, some empirical studies attempt to find out the linkage between bank-specific variables and NPLs including bank capitalization, bank profitability, bank regulation, etc.
This approach is more powerful in explanation of difference of banking NPLs. For instance, using the aggregate banking data from 59 countries, internal factor including the capital adequacy ratio, prudent provisioning policy, private or foreign ownership, strengthening the legal system have significant impact on banks’ NPLs (Boudriga, Taktak, & Jellouli, 2009). Moreover, the insolvency of financial institution is also the result of high NPLs (Farhan, Sattar, Chaudhry, & Khalil, 2012). In addition, other study attempts to find out impact of ownership status or market power on NPLs.
It generally accepted that NPLs associated with the inefficiency, failures of the banks in the financial crisis period (Ahmad & Bashir, 2013). Other approach to examine NPLs’ determinant is analyzing the effect of both macroeconomic and bank-specific factors on NPLs. In particular, the macroeconomic and microeconomic factors are combined to examine the NPLs of commercial and saving bank in Spain. It concludes that all macroeconomic and microeconomic factors have specific effect on NPLs (Salas & Saurina, 2002).
Using the data of Greek banking system, the empirical study combines both macroeconomic and bank- specific factors to assess NPLs’ determinant. This study finds out that bank-specific factors have a different impact on NPLs of different loan categories including mortgage, business and consumer loan portfolios (Louzis, Vouldis, & Metaxas, 2011). Government intervention and foreign investment are also considered as the endogenous variables that affect to NPLs. Some arguments show that government intervention play important role to manage economic in which market failure are balanced (Garcıa-Marco & Robles-Fernandez, 2008).
Other arguments supported for private-sector monitoring hypothesis. Regarding foreign investment, it is general accepted that bank will get advantages from experience of management as well as capital from foreign investment. However, its effect varies in different studies.