THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY Foreign language faculty GRADUATION THESIS RISK MANAGEMENT IN DOCUMENTARY CREDIT: A CASE STUDY OF SAIGON-HANOI BANK (SHB) Supervisors : Phạm Thị Hoàng Anh (Ph.D) Trần Thị Thanh Giang (M.A) Student : Trần Thị Huyên Hanoi, 6th June 2012 Banking Academy Graduation thesis ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process of doing research and writing the thesis has been a painful, but interesting and rewarding experience. There are a number of people that I ought to thank but, in particular, two individuals stand out as they contributed significantly to the completion of this thesis. I would like to send a thousand thanks to Ph.D Phạm Thị Hoàng Anh, my supervisor, for her great support, constructive feedback and thorough understanding to keep me diligent and speed up my progress on the work. I also wish to give my deepest gratitude to M.A Trần Thị Thanh Giang, my co-supervisor, who spent her precious time proofreading and improving the English language of the thesis.
However, the responsibility for any mistakes remains with the author. In addition, I am deeply thankful to the individuals who are working at international payment unit of the Saigon-Hanoi joint stock commercial bank. They recommended the research idea to me and helped me a great deal in collecting secondary data for the research. I am also grateful to all the lecturers of the foreign languages faculty, Banking Academy as well for their dedicated teaching, encouragement, and friendship.
Last but not least, my warmest thanks go to my family. I am deeply grateful for their encouragement and continuous support, and their gentle coaxing. This thesis is dedicated to them. Trần Thị Huyên i Banking Academy Graduation thesis ABSTRACT International trade throws up a number of risks both exporters and importers would not be concerned about if doing business solely inside Vietnam.
One of the fundamental considerations for them is the aspect of payment. Selecting the most appropriate payment method is very effective in risk management. However, every settlement method itself always contains certain risks. So, there is no exception for documentary credit.
It is the potential loss of revenue caused by the mismanagement of risk in documentary credit. This is where the research problem for this thesis arises. The biggest objective of this research is to provide the investigated bank with an insight into its risk management framework in documentary credit and the effectiveness of the risk management practices. In addition, the readers will also get familiar with the risks inherent in documentary credit, realize the importance of risk management in this method in banks.
Four research questions will step by step guide the audience on how these objectives are achieved. In order to give out an evaluation of documentary credit risk management practices, this thesis has tried to build a list of assessment criteria deriving from the literature that has been revised during the study. The analysis secondary data shows that this bank has been trying to adopt a close-to-standard risk management framework in documentary credit. There are both good points and drawbacks in this process.
These findings have led to several constructive improvement suggestions for the case bank. Trần Thị Huyên ii Banking Academy Graduation thesis TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements. ii Table of Contents .iii List of Figures. v List of Tables.
vi List of Abbreviations .vii Chapter 1: Introduction .1 Background of the study .2 Aims and scope of the study.4 Methodology and data source .5 Organization of the study. 3 Chapter 2: Literature review .1 Overview of risk in documentary credit .2 Types of risks in documentary credit .2 Risk management in documentary credit at commercial banks .1 Risk management in general .2 Risk management in documentary credit. 12 Chapter 3: Risk management in documentary credit at Saigon- Hanoi Bank .1 Overview of international payment in documentary credit at SHB .1 Legal framework of international payment at SHB. 14 Trần Thị Huyên iii Banking Academy Graduation thesis 3.2 National and SHB’s internal regulations .2 International payment in documentary credit at SHB .2 Risk management in documentary credit at SHB .1 Risks of IP in documentary credit at SHB .1 Risks stemmed from SHB’s internal factor .2 Risks due to external factor from SHB’s customers .3 Risks from other unavoidable factors .2 Risk management in documentary credit at SHB .1 Policies in international payment in documentary credit .2 Organization in international payment in documentary credit .3 Applying information technology .3 The evaluation of risk management in documentary credit at SHB.
33 Chapter 4: Recommendations and conclusions .1 Recommendations for SHB .1 For the formal documents .2 For the staff.3 For the practices .2 Recommendations for further studies. 40 Trần Thị Huyên iv Banking Academy Graduation thesis LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Risk management process overview .2: Risk management process in detail.1: Causes of risk in documentary credit at SHB. 21 Trần Thị Huyên v Banking Academy Graduation thesis LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Turnover of international payments at SHB .2: Turnover of international payment in documentary credit for exports .3: The amount of export letter of credit .4: Turnover of international payment in documentary credit for imports.5: The amount of import letter of credit .6: Rate of provision for five debt categories .6: Provisions for off-balance sheet items .8: Responsibility in control of documentary credit process .9: Control limits in international payment division of SHB head office. 29 Trần Thị Huyên vi Banking Academy Graduation thesis LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS B/L: Bill of Lading DC: Documentary Credit H.O: Head Office ICC: The International Chamber of Commerce Incoterms: International Commerce Terms IP: International Payment ISBP: International Standard Banking Practice for examination of documents under documentary credits JSCB: Joint Stock Commercial Bank L/C: Letter of Credit LCs: Letters of Credit RMC: Risk Management Committee SBV: The State Bank of Vietnam SHB: Saigon-Hanoi joint stock commercial bank SWIFT: Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication UCP: Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credit Trần Thị Huyên vii Banking Academy Graduation thesis CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study International trade transactions are risky and complex.
One of the fundamental considerations for both exporters and importers is the aspect of payment. It is generally accepted that there are five traditional methods of payment including Cash in Advance, Documentary Credit (DC), Collection, Open Account, and Remittance. Among them, Documentary Credit is playing an increasingly significant role in financing international trade. This method, first codified after the World War I, has been described “as the lifeblood of international commerce” (D'Arcy et al, 2000, p.
Documentary Credit has been developed to reconcile the various economic interests of the parties. By agreeing to payment by documentary credit, the seller and the buyer invite a third trustworthy party – usually a bank - into their relationship. Upon the buyer’s request, the bank opens a letter of credit in favor of the seller. By issuing the letter of credit the bank undertakes a primary and independent obligation to effect payment for the seller provided that complying documents specified in the letter of credit are tendered.
The transaction may involve the service of other banks, acting as agents of the issuing bank, or simply advising the letter of credit to the seller or undertaking a separate obligation to pay to the seller. That is to say, in the operation of DC, settlement is carried out with the dealing of documents, and the bank credit substitutes for commercial credit. It improves international trade with security as well as efficiency. However, DC system itself exists in limitations, and its risks increasingly emerge.
From the practice of international trade, risks can come from the inexperienced enterprises that are unfamiliar with DC system, and the international conventions, or some professional banking personnel who have lower alertness with the risks of DC. Indeed, non-compliance is a significant risk as, according to the international chamber of commerce (ICC), world- wide documentary discrepancy rates against Documentary Credit are between 60% and 70% (ICC Thailand, 2002). These figures appear to be consistent with studies in the USA Trần Thị Huyên 1 Banking Academy Graduation thesis citing discrepancy rates of 73% (Mann, 2000) and the UK, with 50% to 60% (SITPRO Ltd, 2003).Therefore, it is essential to prevent risks of DC for banks and traders. In Vietnam, the financial sector is still in the developing phase and many small commercial banks have not been able to establish a solid risk management framework, especially regarding the international payment risk management, in order to prevent unfavorable events.
In addition, the supervision from the central bank, though playing a growing role, has not been protective enough. Access to the credit information and history of foreign partners is very limited. Indeed, after a thorough research into a great number of joint-stock commercial banks (JSCBs), the article “Prudential Supervision, Banking and Economic Progress: Implementation of Risk Management Procedures in Joint Stock Banks in Vietnam” (Ardrey et al, 2009) pointed out several facts of the JSCBs’ risk management framework such as: limited experience in modern banking techniques, products, and risk management models; lack of accurate, reliable and complete data for decision making; little capital spent to cushion or protect banks against risks due to small profits; poorly developed accounting, reporting and lack of bank supervision guidelines to deliver timely and useful information on the performance of JSCBs’; non-transparent legal and regulatory environment; challenging economic and natural environment. This article’s results left the researcher with curiosity to more thoroughly learn how the practice of risk management in a certain business area of bank is.
Hence, this paper is intended to put a focus on describing in detail a Vietnamese medium joint-stock commercial bank’s risk management framework in documentary credit and evaluating their effectiveness in helping the bank succeed.2 Aims and scope of the study The thesis aims to achieve the following objectives. Firstly, it will review risk management in documentary credit at Saigon-Hanoi Bank from 2009 to 2011. The evaluation of achievements and limitations in the SHB’s risk management will be its second target. Finally, the paper intends to suggest recommendations to prevent risks in documentary credit at SHB.
Trần Thị Huyên 2 Banking Academy Graduation thesis 1.3 Research questions In order to further understand how the objectives of this study will be achieved, the following research questions are introduced: 1. Which types of risks has Saigon- Hanoi Bank encountered in international payment in Documentary Credit during three years of 2009, 2010 and 2011? 2. Which measures have been applied in DC risk management at SHB in 2009, 2010, and 2011? 1.4 Methodology and data source The basic methodology of this thesis is qualitative method through economic statistic analysis, synthesis, and logical interpretation. Qualitative method is often used for exploratory purposes (hypothesis-generating), results in non-quantification data.
The main data source is secondary data collected from the literature (books, journals, previous research papers, electronic sites, etc.), the State Bank of Vietnam’s regulation database, SHB’s annual reports and published internal policies as well as the annual business results.5 Organization of the study The thesis is divided into 4 parts: Chapter 1: Introduction - presenting background information on the research problem, the study objectives and research methodology. Chapter 2: Literature review- an emphasis on the theories supporting this thesis Chapter 3: Risk management in Documentary Credit: a case study of Saigon Hanoi Bank - containing the risks taken place in SHB, DC risk management practices and a very important evaluation of the findings. Chapter 4: Recommendations and conclusions - implications for the bank and recommendations for further studies. Trần Thị Huyên 3 Banking Academy Graduation thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of risk in Documentary Credit 2.1 Concepts According to Gerhard Schroeck (2002), “risk is defined as uncertainty, that is, as the deviation from an expected outcome.