BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM BANKING FACULTY THESIS OF GRADUATION TOPIC: THE IMPACTS OF CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS ON BANKS’ PROFITABILITY: EVIDENCE IN VIETNAM COMMERCIAL BANKS Student name : Nguyen Thi Nhung Lớp : K21CLCA Faculty : Banking Student Code : 21A4010917 Supervisor & Instructor : Assoc. Nguyen Thuy Duong i 17014129182231000000 ABSTRACT When the global economy is on the way to globalization and the trend of liberalization is becoming more and more popular, the role of banks, including commercial banks, is increasingly asserted and has become more important to the economy than ever before. It is crucial to consider the essentials of banks in the economy and how they can impact the financial system. Through its important functions, it is pointed out that a resilient and profitable bank can contribute to the soundness and development of the country’s economy (Nguyen, 2020; Demirguc-Kunt & Huizinga, 1998; Elbannan, 2017; Levine, 1997; Vo, 2018a).
Thus, to understand how to sustain the financial system, it is vital to determine factors that impact banks’ profitability, which can lead to economic resilience. In Vietnam, given that Basel II Accord is in the process of implementation in banking system, it is compulsory to apply capital adequacy ratio (CAR) for all commercial banks before 1/1/2023 according to the amendment in 2019 to Circular 41/2016/TT- NHNN. In a meantime, bank capital can be deemed as one of the significant determinants affecting the banks’ profitability (TH Nguyen, 2020; Batten and Vo, 2019; Lee and Hsieh, 2013; Vo and Nguyen, 2018b). In the context of adjusting regulations about bank capital, updating CAR tends to have effects on banks’ profitability.
This paper would like to examine the possible mentioned influence between CAR and banks’ profitability. The scope of this study is limited to 21 listed Vietnam commercial banks from 2006 to 2021 and the chosen period covers crisis time. By employing ROE, ROA, and NIM to present the profitability of banks, the findings show the positive impact of CAR on ROA, negative impact on ROE, and not significant impact on NIM. The extended regression model, moreover, investigates the impact of Basel framework implementation is different in state-owned and private-owned commercial banks under the long period covering the GFC and uncertainty during the Covid-19 pandemic.
i In general, the empirical findings contribute to current research about the relationship between profitability and CAR in terms of the participation of micro and macro variables. The result is up-to-date and helpful for current internal management in developing and enhancing working efficiency and applying Basel II and Basel III frameworks in the coming years. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During my time at Banking Academy, I would like to express my gratitude for the assistance and attention provided by the Banking faculty in particular, as well as the entire school's professors in general, as well as all friends and relatives. I would like to express my sincere and profound gratitude to Assoc.
Nguyen Thuy Duong, who passionately leads and advises me throughout the research process, for helping me accomplish the research and implementation of this thesis. Moreover, I also would like to thank the organizations, individuals, and businesses that shared information and provided supportive materials to assist me in finishing this work. For the first time in the application of the essay, with limited practical experience and confusion. As a result, the essay is unable to overcome its flaws.
Through this, I look forward to receiving feedback and contributions from the audience in order to improve this research. Thank you sincerely! Hanoi, day 23 month 05 year 2022 Student Nguyen Thi Nhung iii LIST OF ACRONYMS Abbreviations Definition AR Arellano-Bond ASE Amman Stock of Exchange ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations CAR Capital Adequacy Ratio FEM Fixed Effects Model GDP Gross domestic product GFC Global Financial Crisis GMM Generalized Method of Moments NIM Net interest margin OLS Ordinary Least Squares REM Random Effects Model ROA Return on Assets ROE Return on Equity LOG(TA) The natural logarithm of total assets LLP Loan loss provision NII Non-interest income CI Cost-to-income ratio LIQUID Liquidity ratio LEV Financial leverage IncDiver Income diversification GDPG Gross domestic production growth iv INF Inflation STATE Ownership status of commercial banks REG Basel II implementation in banks CRISIS GFC period and the Covid-19 pandemic outbreaks years v LIST OF TABLES No. Table Title Figure 1 Research process Table 1 List of commercial banks in the sample Table 2 Variables description Table 3 Descriptive statistics Table 4 Baseline regression results – Dependent Variable: ROA Table 5 Baseline regression results – Dependent Variable: ROE Table 6 Baseline regression results – Dependent Variable: NIM Table 7 Extended regression results – Dependent variable: ROA Table 8 Extended regression results – Dependent variable: ROE Table 9 Extended regression results – Dependent variable: NIM Table 10 Correlation matrix among variables vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. iii LIST OF TABLES.
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. Background of the research. Objectives of the thesis. Research object and scope.
5 Chapter 1: Literature review and research gap. The review of previous studies. 17 Chapter 2: Research method and process. Overview of previous research methodology.
List of commercial banks in sample. 29 Chapter 3: Results and Discussion. Baseline regression results. Extended regression model.
53 vii Chapter 4: Recommendation. For Vietnamese commercial banks. For the Governor. 61 APPENDIX: Correlation matrix among variables.
Background of the research In terms of the rise of the global economies, especially emerging markets, commercial banks have proved their critical role in leading the growth of the financial system. In general, every commercial bank provides the financial market with top-3 significant functions, which can be named as: payment system, financial intermediation, and financial services (Hersugondo et al., 2021; Al-Qudah, 2020; Shah et al. To be more specific, this kind of financial institution is mainly organized by receiving deposits from idle money or unemployed funds and using them to lend out to individuals or businesses which are in need of money (Dao & Nguyen, 2020; Hersugondo et al. In the position of intermediating funds and financial resources, banking systems are able to allocate money in a rational way, based on the necessity and capital demand of elements in the economy that can reduce costs and bring more benefits to both borrowers and lenders.
Serving as a bridge among a variety of individuals and organizations in the global economy, banks can generate capital and thus contribute to the economic growth of a nation (Hersugondo et al. Since the significant participation of the banking sector in developing the financial industry, it is vital for authorities to consider both negative and positive impacts of banks on the economy. On the one hand, the core feature of commercial banks lies in credit extension and how they utilize loans to not only get profit for them but also fulfill their clients’ needs of capital (Lotto, 2018; Fungacova et al. Upon their financial services offering, banks bring opportunities for the development of every sector in the global economy overall.
However, on the other hand, these helpful functions are only executed in case bank organizations are running efficiently and have proper management (Lotto, 2018; Fungacova et al. Fungacova et al. (2014) pointed out in their research about the primary important factors for the growth 1 of a stable market, which is the soundness of the banking industry and how large profitability banks are able to gain from borrowing and lending activities. Thus, it is shown that a healthy financial environment would contain a gradual growth in the volume of funds flowing from savers to borrowers, as well as higher-quality services for consumers (Nguyen, 2020; Hoffmann, 2011).
Therefore, it can be seen that the profitability of banks plays an important role in the financial industry, or in another word, profitability. Optimizing revenues is the principal destination of every type of institution and there is no exception for the banking sector (Dao & Nguyen, 2020; Adeusi et al. Profits in an organization would show how efficient and well-managed internal procedures and business activities are. Consequently, focusing on the target of excessing income, it is vital to be highly aware of determinants of profitability in commercial banks.
In addition, to ensure appropriate profitability of banks and protect the resilience of the financial system from any movement or impact of banks on the economy at the country level and global level, it is inevitable to promulgate suitable policies and regulations related to banks in order to mitigate possible risks (Dao & Nguyen, 2020). Banking regulations have drawn huge attention theoretically and empirically (Peterson, 2015) and especially the Basel Accord, which guides global banking system procedures and management (Luong et al. Given that bank capital plays a crucial part in profits and risks that banks could face (Nguyen, 2020; Batten & Vo, 2019), as a result, banks are required by authorities to retain specified minimum capital as a cushion that mitigates losses and risks that banks could face and affect the economy (Lotto, 2018; Fungacova et al. Controlling the banks’ safety by the capital adequacy principle can be deemed as one of the most prevailing methods (Dao & Nguyen, 2020), which has been shown on Basel II, particularly through Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR).
Thus, the purpose of this research is to attach the influence of bank regulations by using CAR on the financial health of the banking system and economic market in general. Or in another word, this research examines the 2 determinants of banks’ profitability, including CAR in the model to present for regulations element impact on banks’ profitability. In another aspect, in recent years, Vietnam’s economy can be considered as one of the most significant emerging markets which participates proactively in the international community with high integration into the worldwide financial ecosystem (Nguyen, 2020). Accordingly, Vietnamese commercial banks and also the country’s economy becomes more sensitive and fragile than ever before when it has been exposed to more uncertainty and competence from other nations.
However, the banking system in Vietnam has not complied with worldwide guidance by Basel Committee entirely, only some of the commercial banks in Vietnam have applied to Basel II, which is slower than other economies (Nguyen, 2020; Dang, 2019). Given the context of implementing CAR as the Basel II roadmap of the Government, only a few number of banks comparing the total commercial banks in the Vietnamese banking system has been approved to complied all three pillars in the framework. This distinction in applying regulations in banking operation suggests possibilities of difference in banks’ profitability. However, studying about influence of CAR on banks’ profitability is still a new aspects of investigation in Vietnam, thus, the literature is limited and incomprehensive.
Therefore, with those shortcomings and also the significant contribution of Vietnam’s economy to the global market, this paper is devoted to studying the CAR impacts on banks’ profitability with the involvement of bank-specified and macro-level indicators. Objectives of the thesis Firstly, learn about the current situation of banking regulations in Vietnam and the loading process of Basel application in management in the banking system. Secondly, identify impact factors of banks’ profitability in Vietnamese commercial banks, especially the effect of capital regulation (CAR), thereby assessing the influence level of those elements. 3 Thirdly, suggest solutions for internal management to improve the revenues of banks and optimize the efficiency of banking activities; propose a recommendation for authorities in the regulation amendment and controlling capital adequacy ratio to hedge risk.
Research object and scope ● Research object: Study on factors that have an impact on banks’ profitability in Vietnam commercial banks ● Research scope: In terms of space: 21 Vietnam commercial banks In terms of time: The research is conducted by using annual data from 2006 to 2021.