Graduation Thesis i Banking Academy STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY GRADUATION THESIS: FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION THE CASE OF VIETNAM Student: Nguyễn Thị Vân Class: ATCA-K12 Supervisor: Cấn Thúy Liên Hanoi, May 2013 Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis ii Banking Academy ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Ms. Can Thuy Lien for the continuous support of my bachelor study and research, for her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better supervisor and mentor for my study.
My sincere thanks also go to officers of Administration Department – State Audit Office of Vietnam, for helping and instructing me with work and data collection. Last but not least, I would like to send my heartiest thanks to all the teachers at Banking Academy, who have equipped me with a variety of knowledge and my family who has supported me wholeheartedly. Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis iii Banking Academy ABSTRACT Financial liberalization plays a key role in economic growth and make an important contribution to national financial system development. However, financial liberalization order and its influences is a contentious issue to economic experts, policy makers and related people all over the world.
Nowadays, Vietnam has undergone part of financial liberalization process and achieved certain results, but Vietnam still has to confront many challenges in the coming years. The study provides an overall picture of financial liberalization and solutions to current status of Vietnam financial liberalization. In this thesis, the author will focus on three main sections. The first section is the general overview of financial liberalization.
In the second one, the researcher analyzes Vietnam financial liberalization process in four aspects: interest rates, exchange rate, capital account, and financial services from 1989 until now. The last section is recommendations to enhance financial liberalization in Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis iv Banking Academy TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS. iii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND DIAGRAMS.
vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .3 CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION. The order of financial liberalization. The role of financial liberalization in the economy. The advantages of financial liberalization .2 The disadvantages of financial liberalization.
Waves of financial liberalization .10 CHAPTER 3: FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION IN VIETNAM. The need for financial liberalization implementation in Vietnam. The process of financial liberalization in Vietnam. Interest rates liberalization in Vietnam.
Exchange rate liberalization in Vietnam. Capital account liberalization in Vietnam. Financial services liberalization in Vietnam .31 CHAPTER 4: SOLUTIONS TO VIETNAM FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION PROCESS IN THE CURRENT PERIOD. Vietnam financial liberalization process in the current period.
Solutions to financial liberalization process in Vietnam. Restructuring to have a safe and efficient banking system in Vietnam 41 4. Stabilizing Vietnam’s stock market .42 Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis v Banking Academy 4. Enhancing banking-finance supervision bodies and enforcement.
Reforming auditing and accounting practice. Promoting information disclosure and transparency. Implementing corporate restructuring and the privatization process. Strengthening management competence and banking education.
Applying modern technology - computerization .47 Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis vi Banking Academy LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ATM Automatic Teller Machine BOP Balance of Payment CPI Consumer Price Index FIA The Foreign Investment Agency FDI Foreign Direct Investment Forex Foreign Exchange FPI Foreign Portfolio Investment GDP The Gross Domestic Product IMF The International Monetary Fund IPO Initial Public Offering JSCBs Joint Stock Commercial Banks MNCs Multinational Companies MOF Ministry of Finance NIEs Newly Industrializing Economies POS Point of Sales SBV The State Bank of Vietnam SCIC State Capital Investment Corporation SEAB Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank SOCBs Stated-Owned Commercial Banks SSC The State Securities Commission of Vietnam TNCs Transnational corporations VBARD Vietnam Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development VCB Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam WTO The World Trade Organization Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis vii Banking Academy LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND DIAGRAMS Table 1: Financial liberalization order in Indonesia and Malaysia before the crisis in 1997 .5 Table 2: Exchange rate bands for transactions between commercial banks and their clients .22 Table 3: Exchange rate bands from 2002 up to now .23 Table 4: FDI by economic sectors, cumulative as at end of 2011 .28 Table 5: Vietnam trade balance, current account balance, foreign reserve from 2008 to 2011 .30 Table 6: Charter Capital of JSCBs in Vietnam from 01 January 2012 .37 Table 7: Total Equity of FOCBs in Vietnam on 30 March, 2012.37 Figure 1: Vietnam Real Interest Rate from 2010 to 2012.17 Figure 2: Movement of interest rates from 2011 to March 2013 .18 Figure 3: USD/VND Exchange Rate from December 1989 to December 2003 .23 Figure 4: USD/VND Exchange Rate from January 2012 to March 2013 .24 Figure 5: Trend in the number of FDI projects and capital flows .27 Figure 6: Vietnam remittances from 1990 to 2010 .28 Figure 8: VN-Index from May 2012 to March 2013 .30 Figure 9: Top 10 countries with the highest asset growth of banking sector in 2010 .35 Figure 10: ATM, POS and issued cards .35 Figure 11: Vietnamese insurance penetration 2011 .36 Diagram 1: Vietnam’s financial liberalization implementation process in the current period. 40 Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis 1 Banking Academy CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Research rationale It can be seen in the theory and practice that financial liberalization can promote economic development. In the 1980s, the forceful government intervention formulated norms in financial market of developing countries.
Interest rate ceiling, credit allocation by the government rather than market conditions, and tightly controlled foreign capital inflows were prevalent. However, under the influence of the liberalization theory and the experience of developed countries, the developing countries have also gradually liberalized financial markets over the last 20 years. Apparently, success in financial liberalization is a key element of the national economic development strategy. Increased investment liberalization and expanded trade liberalization will inevitably lead to improved financial liberalization, which is the common trend in any market economy.
Financial liberalization is not only a compulsory condition to participate in international arena but also the inevitable trend of economic integration. It is undeniable that financial liberalization brings the huge potential benefits to the nations. The process of financial liberalization helps create a financial system of transparency, flexibility and efficiency, which will help attract investment, stimulate healthy competition and boost the economic growth. Furthermore, financial liberalization gives domestic financial institution the chances to access to new technology and provides indigenous consumers the variety of high-quality financial services.
However, in addition to the indisputable enormous potential benefits, financial liberalization also has the drawbacks that several groups of people still consider as the cause of collapse, financial crises, as happened in Mexico in 1994 - 1995, Thailand and some other Asian countries in 1997. Therefore, these countries have their own selection of financial liberalization process which is in harmony with economic - political conditions of each country for the sake of benefits maximization and risks mitigation. Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis 2 Banking Academy Financial liberalization has been intensively developing in Vietnam in parallel with the development of market socialist-oriented economy and integration into the international market. The question is that where Vietnam is in the process, and which ways to help Vietnam overcome the difficulties of current underdeveloped financial system to implement financial liberalization.
Based on the theoretical system of financial liberalization, and the reality of financial liberalization process in Vietnam from 1989 until now, this study focuses on understanding the nature and role of financial liberalization in order to realize its necessity for the national economic development. The author conducted research to assess the current status of financial innovation and suggest several solutions to financial liberalization in Vietnam. Research questions How is the financial liberalization of high importance to the economy? How was the financial liberalization implemented in Vietnam? How is the current economic situation when Vietnam went through part of liberalization process from 1989? What are solutions to Vietnam’s financial liberalization process in the current period? 3. Research objectives Objective of the research is to describe the nature, role and importance of financial liberalization to economic development and recommend several solutions to financial liberalization in Vietnam in the current period.
Research Scope The author makes research on financial liberalization in Vietnam from 1989 until now and its current situation. Research methodology Basing on the theoretical research method and international experience combined with studying financial liberalization in Vietnam in recent years, the author Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis 3 Banking Academy completed the study through the following steps: Step 1: Collect information from books, newspapers, Internet, and organizations related to the field of study in the topic. Step 2: Gather, analyze documents, and combine the textbook knowledge with practice to implement topic content. In addition, the following methods and techniques are also used to make conclusions and solutions for the topic: analysis, comparison methods and inductive method.
Thesis outline The study consists of four following chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: An overview of financial liberalization Chapter 3: Financial liberalization in Vietnam Chapter 4: Solutions to Vietnam’s financial liberalization process in the current period Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis 4 Banking Academy CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION 2.Kinnon Ronald I defined that financial liberalization is when restrictions and bonds in terms of finance are eliminated. In other words, financial liberalization is the process in which the tools of monetary policy are used in compliance with the market mechanism. If governments levy the tax or distort capital markets by using instruments like high compulsory reserve ratio, ceiling interest rates for deposits and lending, subsidized credit with a view to achieving the short-term targets of the development plan, it is considered that the countries’ economy are suffering financial hindrance. Those actions may obstruct the development of financial system, cause currency instability, the illiquid financial assets, and slow investment growth.
In short, financial liberalization is a process to lift financial barriers or remove financial obstructions so as to increase financial depth and develop the national financial market. According to the World Bank (1989), the main objective of financial liberalization is to establish a financial system based on market mechanism, to integrate into the global economy in order to take advantage of savings mobilization, to allocate internal and external resources effectively. Accordingly, sustainable growth will be successfully achieved. The result of financial liberalization is often expressed as the ratio of the broad money (cash and deposits in the commercial banking system) to the GDP.
A higher ratio of broad money to GDP is generally associated with greater financial liquidity and depth. For example, the average rates of the Asian and African countries are 60% and 20% of its GDP respectively in the 1990s. Financial liberalization is implemented in the following elementary aspects: - Interest rate liberalization - Exchange rate liberalization - Capital account liberalization - Financial services liberalization Nguyen Thi Van ATCA_K12 Graduation Thesis 5 Banking Academy During the financial liberalization process, the above basic aspects can be carried out simultaneously or separately in various steps provided that it is consistent with the international context and characteristics of each country. That is called order of financial liberalization.
The order of financial liberalization In fact, there is no common sequence of financial liberalization for all countries in the world. The sequence of financial liberalization can be varied from one country to another, depending on the nature and conditions of each economy. Table 1 shows an example of financial liberalization order of the two countries which are in South East Asia - Indonesia and Malaysia. It can be clearly seen that Indonesia tended to implement liberalization within the country first and then the liberalization of the current account.
In contrast, Malaysia liberated the current account first.