BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM BANKING FACULTY ---------- GRADUATION THESIS Topic: DETERMINANTS OF NON-PERFORMING LOANS IN VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL BANKS Student : Nguyen Hong Anh Class : K22CLA Course : 2019 – 2023 Student ID : 22A4010922 Supervisor : PhD Dang Thi Thu Hang Hanoi, May 23rd, 2023 BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM BANKING FACULTY ---------- GRADUATION THESIS Topic: DETERMINANTS OF NON-PERFORMING LOANS IN VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL BANKS Student : Nguyen Hong Anh Class : K22CLA Course : 2019 – 2023 Student ID : 22A4010922 Supervisor : PhD Dang Thi Thu Hang Hanoi, May 23rd, 2023 DECLARATION I, Nguyen Hong Anh, declare that this Graduation Thesis titled “DETERMINANTS OF NON-PERFORMING LOANS IN VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL BANKS” is my original work. It is the culmination of my independent research and academic endeavors conducted under the guidance and supervision of PhD Dang Thi Thu Hang. I affirm that the content of this thesis is the result of my own research, analysis, and interpretation, unless otherwise cited and referenced. Any sources of information, data, or ideas used in this thesis are duly acknowledged and cited in the appropriate manner following the prescribed referencing style.
Hanoi, May 23rd, 2023 Nguyen Hong Anh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am sincerely grateful to my supervisor, PhD Dang Thi Thu Hang, for her invaluable guidance, expertise, and unwavering support throughout the entire research process. Her insightful feedback and encouragement have been instrumental in shaping this thesis and enhancing its quality. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the lecturers of Banking Faculty of Banking Academy who have contributed to my academic growth through their knowledge-sharing, mentorship, and dedication to teaching. Their passion for education and commitment to excellence have played a significant role in shaping my intellectual development.
I am deeply grateful to my family for their constant love, encouragement, and belief in my abilities. Their support and understanding have been a constant source of motivation during the challenging moments of this thesis journey. Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge my friends and classmates for their companionship, stimulating discussions, and the collaborative learning environment we have shared. Their friendship and support have made this academic endeavor more enjoyable and fulfilling.
Last but not least, I am grateful for the opportunity to undertake this research and for the support and guidance provided to me along the way. This thesis would not have been possible without the collective efforts of those mentioned above. Thank you all for your invaluable contributions. Hanoi, May 23rd, 2023 Nguyen Hong Anh TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
ii LIST OF TABLES. Urgency of the topic. Subjects and Scope of the Research. The structure of the study.
8 Chapter 1: OVERVIEW OF DETERMINANTS OF COMMERCIAL BANK’S NON-PERFORMING LOANS. Overview of Non-Performing Loans. Definition of NPL. Classification of NPL.
Causes of NPL. Impacts of NPL. Indicators reflecting NPL. Determinants of Non-Performing Loans.
Bank – specific factors. 18 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1. 23 Chapter 2: RESEARCH MODEL AND RESULTS. Research model selection.
Description of variables and hypotheses. Research sample and data collection. Testing of variable selection in regression models. Regression analysis of panel data according to GMM method 35 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 2.
41 Chapter 3: RECOMMENDATION TO LIMIT AND HANDLE NON- PERFORMING LOANS IN THE VIETNAMESE BANKING SYSTEM 42 3. Some recommendation to limit and address non-performing loans of Vietnamese commercial banks. Limitations of Study. 45 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 3.
xx LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Full meaning BS Balance Sheet CAR Capital Adequacy Ratio FEM Fixed Effects Model FS Financial Statement GDP Gross Domestic Product GMM Generalized Method of Moments IS Income Statement NPL Non-performing loan OLS Ordinary Least Squares REM Random Effects Model ROA Return on Assets ROE Return on Equity S.GMM System Generalized Method of Moments SBV State Bank of Vietnam VNese Vietnamese ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Description of variables used in the thesis’s model .2: Descriptive statistics of variables in the research .5: GMM estimation results on determinants of NPLs in VNese banks. Urgency of the topic Financial intermediaries, particularly commercial banks, play a key role in the economy both at a national and global level. They are a channel of funds from surplus to deficit. Lending is the most prominent profit-making activity for commercial banks.
However, non-performing loans exist objectively in credit activities, and keeping NPLs at a safe level is one of commercial banks’ most crucial targets. NPLs not only can reduce banks’ earnings and cause losses, which weighs on their soundness, but they also exert adverse impacts on the development of economy and society. Besides that, NPLs negatively affect banks’ reputation and national financial system. Therefore, the management of NPLs is regarded as a vital activity for banks to figure out causes, estimate losses, and then propose efficient solutions to manage and tackle NPLs with the aim of minimizing losses as the consequence of NPLs.
Since 2008, the year of beginning of the world financial crisis, the issue of non-performing loans has been a major concern for financial institutions worldwide as the NPL ratio has increased significantly. In Vietnam, in the period before 2017, due to the impact of the financial crisis, the global economic recession, the freezing of the real estate market and difficulties in production and business activities of people and businesses, the ratio of NPLs at banks and credit institutions was extremely high. The banking industry had made strides in restructuring credit institutions, and especially significantly reducing the NPL ratio of the whole industry. According to the report of the SBV, from 2012 to 2021, the whole system of credit institutions had handled more than 1.3 million billion VND of NPLs (on-BS and gross NPL ratios decreased from 2.
Nevertheless, by the end of 2021, the on-BS NPL ratio was 1.21% rise from the previous year and total NPL ratio saw a significant rise of 2.15% in 2020 and roughly the same as at the end of 2017 with 7. NPL ratio of the whole banking industry rose remarkably due to the outbreak of coronavirus in the first few weeks of 2020, which kept going with complex transformations. And especially the 4th wave with 1 the Delta mutation in 2021 had profoundly affected the entire economy, causing heavy losses to production and business activities of enterprises, and people's lives. It had a serious impact on the solvency of enterprises and borrowers.
Although the restructuring of NPLs during the Covid-19 pandemic had achieved encouraging results, there are still difficulties and obstacles in the process of handling NPLs. Currently, facing the challenges and opportunities of the economy in the new period, how to control and deal with NPLs is a central issue of the banking system to create a stable financial foundation for banks, thereby the identification and analysis of various factors that contribute to the occurrence of NPLs becomes an important and urgent task. Based on the important awareness about theory and practice as above, I decided to choose the topic “Determinants of Non-Performing Loans in Vietnamese Commercial Banks” for my graduation thesis. I expect to propose some ideas to improve the NPL ratio of commercial banks in the period 2008-2021 for the coming time from the research results.
Literature Review The concept of non-performing bank loans (NPLs) first appeared in Europe towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. During this period, the system of traditional commercial banks in Europe flourished. These banks were also known as intermediary banks due to their primary roles as credit and payment intermediaries. With the evolution of the global banking industry, the concept of NPLs was refined and became a standard academic concept.
It is even included in the Cambridge dictionary under the term “bad debt.” Numerous studies throughout the globe have addressed NPLs and their causes. (1) Using the one-step system GMM estimation method, Umar & Sun (2018) investigate macroeconomic and banking industry-specific factors affecting NPLs for 197 Chinese banks between 2005 and 2014. The research employs three distinct models to examine the determinants. While the first and second models only consider macro or micro variables as regression factors, the third model includes both.
The findings suggest that GDP growth, bank risk-taking behavior, bank leverage, and loan loss reserves 2 have a negative effect on NPLs. Additionally, a higher effective interest rate, inflation rate, foreign exchange rate, lower ownership concentration, and bank type all contribute to an increase in NPLs. NPL variation cannot be explained by bank spread, public debt to GDP ratio, cost efficiency, diversification, profitability, or credit growth. Unlisted banks have a greater impact on the overall sample's findings than listed banks.
(2) Khan et al. (2020) investigate the causes of NPLs in commercial banks in Pakistan from 2005 to 2017. The study analyzes specific banking factors, including profitability (measured by ROA), bank capital, income diversification and operating efficiency, using FEM and REM. The results reveal that ROA and operating efficiency have a significant negative effect on NPLs, whereas the effects of other variables are insignificant.
This finding is different from that of Umar & Sun (2018). (3) Kartikasary et al. (2020) examine the influence of microeconomic and macroeconomic variables on NPLs in 43 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange between 2014 and 2017. Bank-specific factors include Bank Capital, Loans to Deposits, ROA, ROE, and NPL from the prior year, while macroeconomic factors include GDP, inflation rate, unemployment rate, and government budget deficit or surplus.
Using OLS regression, this study demonstrates that the previous NPL and loan-to-deposit ratio have a significant positive effect on the NPLs of Indonesian banks. Conversely, ROE negatively affects NPLs. However, macroeconomic variables have no effect on NPLs on the individual level. (4) Mohamed et al.
(2021) investigate the macro factors affecting NPLs in the Malaysian banking industry in the period 2015 – 2019. Utilizing secondary monthly data and OLS method, researchers discover a significant and negative correlation between unemployment and NPLs. By contrast, inflation significantly possesses a positive effect on NPLs. In the meantime, there is no statistically significant and positive correlation between the interest rate and NPLs in Malaysia.
3 In recent years, in Vietnam, there are also a lot of investigations on contributing factors of NPLs as below: (5) Hue (2015) conducts research on specific data of Vietnamese commercial banks. The objective of this study is to identify the factors that contribute to NPLs in the banking system of Vietnam. The study utilizes OLS estimation and panel data obtained from 20 commercial banks spanning the years 2009 to 2012. The findings indicate that the four bank-level factors, namely NPLs in the previous year, total assets, loans' growth rate, and the Dummy variable, are all positively associated with NPLs.
(6) Using data from 34 commercial banks in Vietnam between 2005 and 2015, Vinh (2017) examines the influence of NPLs on bank profitability and lending behavior. The empirical findings, which make use of dynamic panel data approaches and System GMM estimation, depict that NPLs hurt bank profitability and lending behavior. Because of this, profitability and lending operations are diminished as asset quality declines. When there are more loans that are not making money, banks are less motivated to offer competitive rates and terms.
Another finding is that larger capitalization correlates with increased profitability and loan growth for banks. (7) Duong & Huong (2017) explore the factors driving credit risks at Vietnamese commercial banks by applying the one-step GMM to the unbalanced panel data of 20 banks from 2006 to 2014. The study assesses the dependent variable, namely NPLs. The author's findings conclude that credit risks are extremely inertial for bank-specific determinants, in which bank size and market share have an adverse influence on credit risks.
Besides, rapid growth of credit, inefficient capital utilization, and inadequate credit management result in potential credit risks in the future. Regarding macroeconomic factors, there is a correlation among economic cycles (GDP growth) and credit risk.