Financial security of vietnam commercial banking system for the period 2010 - 2017: current situation and recommendations

Journal of Science Technology and Food 20 (1) (2020) 17-25 
17 
FINANCIAL SECURITY OF VIETNAM COMMERCIAL 
BANKING SYSTEM FOR THE PERIOD 2010 - 2017: 
CURRENT SITUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
Tran Van Hung 
Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry 
Email: hungtvan@hufi.edu.vn 
Received 20 December 2019; Accepted 28 February 2020 
ABSTRACT 
The article reflects the reality of the financial security of Vietnam's commercial banking 
system in the period of 2010-2017. Based on secondary data collected from the report of the 
State Bank and based on financial security measurement indicators of the banking system, 
namely four typical indicators were the bad debt ratio, profitability, capital adequacy ratio, the 
ratio of outstanding loans to total deposits.The research results showed that in the period of 
2010-2017, although Vietnam had controlled the financial security indicators of the 
commercial banking system, there were still potential risks, especially in credit operations. In 
particular, the bad debt ratio is still high, financial and monetary supervision was not effective, 
so it had not contributed much to the security and financial safety of the whole system. Based 
on that, the article proposes a number of recommendations to enhance financial security in 
banking operations. 
Keywords: Financial security, commercial banking, current situation. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Financial security is becoming increasingly a vital issue for each country, especially in 
the context of rapid globalization and economic - financial liberalization. Financial security 
assurance means ensuring the operation of the financial system in a stable, safe and strong 
manner. For Vietnam, a country that is transitioning to a socialist-oriented market economy, 
the more important it is to ensure financial security as one of the prerequisites for economic 
development with high speed and stability [1]. In particular, the banking system is an important 
part of the financial system, playing an extremely important role in the economy with the main 
function of mobilizing and allocating resources in the economy. In the context of deeper and 
deeper international economic integration, the instabilities of the world financial markets 
directly affect the management of exchange rates, interest rates, national debts, inflows of I/O 
as well as risks of Vietnamese financial institutions on the financial market. If the operation 
of the banking system is not effective, high risks can easily lead to monetary and financial 
crises and adversely affect social-economic development. Therefore, ensuring financial and 
banking security in the trend of globalization and financial liberalization is always a matter of 
current concern. From that, the objective of the article is to present the current state of financial 
security of Vietnam's banking system and proposes a number of recommendations to enhance 
financial security in banking operations. 
Tran Van Hung 
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2. THEORETICAL BASIS 
2.1. The concepts of financial security for banking activities 
Currently, there are many different concepts of financial security but according to some 
scholars have the following outstanding concepts: 
Financial security for the operation of credit institutions is the assurance of capital safety, 
operational safety, and asset status (liabilities, assets and net assets) of credit institutions are 
implemented in a stable, safe and strong manner [2]. 
Financial security for the activities of credit institutions in general and banks in particular 
is the use of measures to keep their assets always stable and safe, strong and not in crisis [1]. 
The serious financial threat to banks is a liquidity risk and liquidity risk of banks also 
reflects the stability of financial markets [3]. 
Thus, financial security for banking activities is to ensure the safety of the assets of banks, 
which are always stable, safe and strong. 
2.2. The indicators measuring financial security of the banking system 
Currently, there are two common indicators for measuring risks of the financial system, 
including: 
Firstly, the indicator system of the European Central Bank (ECB). In particular, the 
system of macro safety indicators (Macro Prudential Indicators - MPIs) to assess the financial 
stability of the banking sector; MPIs includes many indicators, some of them measure the 
financial stability (FSIs), but mainly focuse on the stability of the European common bank. 
Secondly, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) system of indicators has set up a prudent 
monitoring indicator system consisting of 67 basic indicators and 43 sub-indicators which are 
divided into 7 groups: External debt and financial flows; Currency and credit; Bank; Interest 
rate; Stock market and bonds; Trade; Exchange rate and foreign exchange fund; Statistical and 
business data. 
In Vietnam, the assurance of financial safety in the financial market is done through the 
criteria of financial safety supervision in the monetary market - banking, stock market and 
insurance market [2]. For the currency market - Banking: International standards according to 
Basel II and the CAMELS indicator system are used to ensure safety in banking operations. 
Thus, the financial security in the operation of commercial banks is affected by many 
factors. Within the scope of this article, the author assesses the safety and robustness in the 
operation of the commercial banking system in Vietnam for the period of 2010-2017 based on 
a number of basic criteria: Bad debt indicators; Profitability criteria; Capital adequacy ratio; 
Loan outstanding ratio, because these are the basic indicators showing the financial risks of 
commercial banks [4]. 
3. RESEARCH METHOD 
3.1. Research data 
Data used in this research are from the annual report of the State Bank in the period of 
2010 - 2017, namely data on the ratio of bad debt, profitability, capital adequacy ratio, debt 
ratio to loans to total deposits of commercial banks and data on the ratio of bad debts to total 
outstanding loans of Vietnam compared to other countries for analysis and evaluation. 
Financial security of Vietnam commercial banking system for the period 2010-2017... 
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3.2. Analytical methods 
The article uses a descriptive statistical method, combined with illustrated tables to assess 
the financial security situation of the Vietnamese commercial banking system. 
On the basis of secondary data source, 4 indicators reflecting the financial security 
situation of the banking system have been analyzed. 
4. THE REALITY OF FINANCIAL SECURITY OF VIETNAM'S COMMERCIAL 
BANKING SYSTEM IN THE PERIOD OF 2010 - 2017 THROUGH A NUMBER OF 
BASIC CRITERIA 
NPLs (Nonperforming loan - NPL): 
In Vietnam, the concept of bad debt is now regulated by the State Bank according to the 
consolidated document No. 01/VBHN-NHNN dated 31/3/2014 [5]. NPLs of banks include 
loans of group 3 (substandard debt), group 4 (doubtful debts) and group 5 (potentially 
irrecoverable debts) is specified in Article 10 of the Circular. The bad debt ratio is the ratio of 
bad debt to total debt from group 1 to group 5, which shows the percentage of loans that the 
borrower fails to fulfill its debt repayment obligations to the bank goods as committed. During 
this period, many commercial banks were converted from rural banks or newly established 
with small equity scale and were forced to mobilize capital in the inter-bank market because 
there is no basis for strong depositors to boost lending. The over-reliance on so-called market 
2 to raise capital has led many banks to lose liquidity when the State Bank tightened monetary 
policy to fight inflation in 2008-2009. 
Figure 1. NPL ratio of Vietnamese commercial banks [6] 
The period of 2011-2014 was a hot spot for bad debt, this index was higher than 3%, 
especially in 2012, reached the highest of 8.82%. During this period, bad debts concentrated 
in the area of real estate and stock. Also according to the State Bank, in 2012 bad debts of 
state-owned enterprises and state-owned economic groups accounted for 70% of the total bad 
debts. From 2015 onwards, NPLs tended to decrease and were below 3%. 
Compared with other countries in the region, the NPL ratio of Vietnam is still quite high. 
Vietnam's bad debt methodology has not followed international standards to correctly identify 
the level of risk to the monetary and banking market. Conventional calculations always show 
that the reported debt of commercial banks is much lower than the international standard. This 
poses a challenge to perfect Vietnam's NPL calculation in accordance with international 
standards to correctly identify the level of risk to credit safety. 
Tran Van Hung 
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Table 1. NPL/total outstanding loans ratio of Vietnam to other countries (%) [7] 
Year Vietnam Singapore Malaysia Thailand Philippin Indonesia China Japan 
2010 2.1 1.4 3.4 3.9 3.4 2.5 1.1 2.5 
2011 2.8 1.1 2.7 2.9 2.6 2.1 1.0 2.4 
2012 3.4 1.0 2.0 2.4 2.2 1.8 1.0 2.4 
2013 3.1 0.9 1.8 2.3 2.4 1.7 1.0 2.3 
2014 2.9 0.8 1.6 2.3 2.0 2.1 1.1 1.9 
2015 2.52 0.9 1.6 2.7 1.9 2.4 1.7 1.6 
2016 2.58 1.1 1.7 2.9 2.0 3.0 1.7 1.5 
Profitability criteria 
This index reflects the performance of commercial banks. Profitability is one of the goals 
that both managers and investors pay attention to because high profits will help banks preserve 
capital, increase market share and attract investment. A bank with stable growth in profits is 
one of the signs showing the bank's sustainable development. 
Return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) are two typical indicators used to 
assess the profitability of banks. ROE and ROA ratios depend on the business season as well 
as the size and risk level of the bank. According to data from the State Bank, profitability 
targets of the commercial banking system (ROA, ROE) for the period of 2010-2017 decreased 
over the years. ROA in 2010 was 1.1%, in 2017 it was 0.62%, ROE in 2010 was 13.4%, down 
to 7.79% in 2017. Although the indicators reflect the size of the bank such as equity, total 
customer deposits, outstanding loans increased, profit targets decreased. This reflects the 
inefficient use of commercial banks. 
Figure 2. Profitability of Vietnamese commercial banking system [6] 
Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) 
This is an indicator reflecting the financial capacity specified in the Basel standard. CAR 
is also an important indicator to ensure capital adequacy and assess the ability of commercial 
banks to resist risks according to the orientation of the State Bank of Vietnam.Currently, the 
capital adequacy ratio of banks is regulated in Circular 36/2014/TT-NHNN dated November 
20, 2014 providing limits and prudential ratios in operations of credit institutions, foreign bank 
branches. However, compared to Basel II, the minimum safety factor in Vietnam did not 
mention the market risk and operational risk. By December 2016, the State Bank issued 
Circular 41/2016/TT-NHNN regulating capital adequacy ratios for banks and foreign bank 
branches. This circular has the content of adjustment according to Basel II, whereby the CAR 
ratio decreases from 9% to 8%, and the formula for CAR calculation is also amended. 
Financial security of Vietnam commercial banking system for the period 2010-2017... 
21 
Compared with other countries in the region, the capital adequacy ratio of Vietnamese 
commercial banking system is quite low, as shown in the following Table 2: 
Table 2. Capital adequacy ratios of some ASEAN countries in 2019 [8] 
Countries CAR (%) 
Cambodia 22.0 
Indonesia 23.3 
Malaysia 17.7 
Philippin 15.9 
Singapore 16.7 
Thailand 19.4 
Viet Nam 13.3 
In general, the financial system ensures a good ability to provide capital to the economy 
and has met the minimum capital adequacy ratio of 9% under the effective Circular No. 
36/2014/TT-NHNN. By the end of 2017, capital supply to the economy from the financial 
system was estimated at 198% of GDP, an increase of 28.6% compared to the end of 2016. In 
particular, capital from the credit institution system increased by 18.1%, leading to CAR ratio 
of commercial banks reached 10.65%. In particular, joint venture commercial banks and 
foreign branches have CAR twice higher than other groups. This is explained by the fact that 
these banks have just applied the capital adequacy ratio prescribed by Vietnam, and also follow 
the standards of the country where the head office is located and how to calculate the CAR 
ratio of the banks. This bank is mostly rated to meet Basel II. 
Figure 3. Capital adequacy ratio of Vietnam financial and credit system for the period 2010-2017 [6] 
In general, the CAR of Vietnamese credit institutions is in the safe range, but there are 
some points to note: 
(i) Although the Vietnamese commercial banks have made every effort and most have 
achieved capital adequacy ratios above 8%, if compared with the calculation of the safety 
coefficient of Basel II, the denominator must be added to the capital for market risks and 
13,75 13,25 12,94 13 12,84
11,1
14
12,56 11,75 12,74 11,8 12,7
27,63
26,55
31,12
33,8 33,2 33,4
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
The financial system ensures State-owned commercial banks
joint-stock commercial bank Joint venture commercial banks
and foreign branches
Tran Van Hung 
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operational risks, very few Vietnamese commercial banks will surely achieve capital adequacy 
ratio above 8%. 
(ii) State-owned commercial banks have the lowest CAR system among credit 
institutions. This is a group of large-scale banks, accounting for more than 40% market share 
of deposits and loans but with a low CAR 
(iii) A number of banks have increased their legal capital levels to ensure the minimum 
capital adequacy ratio. But many banks are still in the process of implementing plans to 
increase their legal capital. Therefore, the minimum capital adequacy ratio of the whole 
banking system has increased, but it has not yet guaranteed an increase according to the 
minimum capital adequacy ratio. 
The noticeable problem at this stage is due to the impact of the stimulus policy as well as 
the implementation of monetary easing by the SBV, so the credit at commercial banks has 
increased sharply. This has led to an increase in the total risk assets of commercial banks and 
as a result, commercial banks in the above group tend to reduce their capital adequacy ratio. 
Loan to deposit ratio (LDR) 
This is one of the safety ratios used by many countries. This ratio reflects the relationship 
between lending and deposit as a measure of liquidity, so as the LDR increases, the liquidity 
of the bank decreases accordingly. In Vietnam, LDR is specified in Circular 06/2016/TT-
NHNN, and the maximum rate is 80%-90% depending on the type of commercial bank. 
In fact, the LDR ratio in the period of 2010-2017 was above 80%, particularly in 2011, 
LDR was highest ratio in this period when reached 95.83%, and the reason was that during 
this period, Commercial banks are in serious liquidity shortage. Since then, in order to meet 
the demand for credit for customers and other liquidity needs, banks have mobilized deposits 
with very high interest rates of 18% per year, exceeding the ceiling set by the State Bank of 
14% / year. Since 2012, the LDR ratio has been controlled below 90%. However, as suggested 
by the International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2000), banks need to reduce this ratio to less than 
65% to avoid the liquidity burden in order to cope with shocks. 
Figure 4. Ratio of outstanding loans to total deposits of Vietnam's commercial banking system 
for the period 2010-2017 [6] 
Compared with other countries in the region, a telling gauge of banks’ exposure to higher 
interest rates, paints a broadly positive picture for ASEAN, although not without exceptions. 
LDR's of most major ASEAN banks, with the exception of Thailand and Malaysian banks, 
stand at comfortable levels compared to rest of the world. Thailand banks top the region with 
LDR levels near or above 100% while Philippines banks’ have the lowest LDR levels at 69%. 
80,37
95,83
88,85
85,69
81,78
87,96 87,74
84,47
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
LDR (%)
Financial security of Vietnam commercial banking system for the period 2010-2017... 
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The broad picture is more encouraging with ASEAN banks average LDR levels at 84% 
compared to 98% for the rest of the world and 90% for the developed world. 
Table 3. Loan to deposit ratio of some ASEAN countries in Q3/2015 [7] 
Countries LDR (%) 
Singapore 82.5 
Malaysia 94 
Indonesia 81 
Thailand 99 
Philippin 69 
Việt Nam 73 
By analyzing the financial security situation of Vietnam commercial banking system in 
the period of 2010-2017 through a number of indicators show that although Vietnam has 
control of the financial security indicators of the system commercial banks, but still have many 
potential risks, especially in credit activities, in particular, the bad debt ratio is still high, 
financial and monetary supervision has not been effective, so it has not contributed much to 
the security and financial safety of the whole system. 
5. SOME SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
Despite remarkable achievements, Vietnam's economy in general and the banking and 
financial system in particular are still facing many difficulties. In particular, Vietnam may face 
risks in terms of financial safety, especially related to bad debts. From the above-mentioned 
financial security situation, some recommendations to policy makers to enhance financial 
security in banking operations are as follows: 
Building an appropriate financial supervision mechanism: in order to minimize risks in 
banking business activities to contribute to financial security, the State Bank should classify 
commercial banks into groups and issue Financial targets for each specific group. At the same 
time, it is necessary to promptly handle weak-performing banks to ensure their own business 
and to avoid a chain effect on other banks. 
Complete the legal framework on liquidity risk management for the system: currently, 
the law only regulates liquidity risk management of each commercial bank but there is no 
regulation to adjust risk management liquidity of the whole banking system. Therefore, 
measuring and giving warnings about the possibility of systematic liquidity risk for the whole 
commercial banking system is really necessary. In order to do this, the law needs to stipulate 
the development and determination of a system of liquidity indicators for the commercial 
banking system, which is considered as a standard to help bank administrators to cope timely 
and prevent a possible liquidity crisis. 
Develop a system to assess the ability of commercial banks to resist risks: building a 
system to assess the resilience of commercial banks to shocks in the financial market is really 
necessary to adopt financial security indicators to help policy makers and financial institutions 
proactively cope with risks. 
Enhancing the competitiveness of commercial banks: Vietnam's commercial banking 
system needs to improve its competitiveness to meet the requirements of stable and effective 
Tran Van Hung 
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development in accordance with international standards and practices such as Camels, Basel 
II, Basel III adopt a number of measures such as: 
Increasing the charter capital: It is the most important factor to ensure the minimum 
capital adequacy ratio prescribed by the State Bank and also ensures the safety for the 
operation of the bank itself during its operation credit activity. Increasing capital will allow 
banks to invest in technology development, human resource training and expansion of 
distribution channels. 
Technology development investment: In a modern competitive environment, technology 
is an important factor affecting the success of banks. Along with increasing equity, commercial 
banks need to upgrade investment in developing modern technology capable of linking in the 
system, in order to enhance competitiveness against the trend of competitive commercial 
banks. 
 Improving the quality of human resources: There are policies to encourage officials and 
employees in the bank need to improve professional qualifications; send those who have good 
management capacity to study and learn how to work, organize and manage in developed 
countries in the world. 
REFERENCES 
1. Vu Dinh Anh - Financial security in banking activities, Ha Noi (2017) 
OaT_doNG_NGaN_HaNG.pdf 
2. Le Thi Thuy Van - Solutions to ensure financial security in Vietnam's financial 
market, 2017. 
ninh-tai-chinh-tren-thi-truong-tai-chinh-viet-nam-129516.html 
3. Tavana M., Abtahi A.R., Caprio D.D., Poortarigh M. - An artificial neural network 
and Bayesian network model for liquidity risk assessment in banking, 
Neurocomputing 275 (2018) 2525-2554. 
4. Hung Truong Anh, H. N. - Applying a set of safety supervision criteria for banking 
operations in risk identification of credit institutions and foreign bank branches, 
Banking Magazine 24 (2018). 
5. The state Bank of Viet Nam - The consolidated document No. 01/VBHN-NHNN dated 
31/3/2014 
6. The state Bank of Viet Nam - Annual report from 2010 to 2017, Information and 
communications publishing house. 
https://www.sbv.gov.vn/webcenter/portal/vi/menu/rm/apph/bctn?_afrLoop=3566561
3296591577#%40%3F_afrLoop%3D35665613296591577%26centerWidth%3D80
%2525%26leftWidth%3D20%2525%26rightWidth%3D0%2525%26showFooter%3
Dfalse%26showHeader%3Dfalse%26_adf.ctrl-state%3D1dib5l8vyd_115 
7. Sumedh Deorukhkar, Le Xia - ASEAN Deciphering the region’s banking sector, 
BBVA Research (2015) https://www.bbvaresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/ 
12/10-Dec-2015_Banking-Watch_ASEAN_BBVA.pdf 
8. https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/capital-adequacy-ratio. 
Financial security of Vietnam commercial banking system for the period 2010-2017... 
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TÓM TẮT 
THỰC TRẠNG AN NINH TÀI CHÍNH 
CỦA HỆ THỐNG NGÂN HÀNG THƯƠNG MẠI VIỆT NAM GIAI ĐOẠN 2010 - 2017: 
THỰC TRẠNG VÀ KHUYẾN NGHỊ 
Trần Văn Hùng 
Trường Đại học Công nghiệp Thực phẩm TP.HCM 
Email: hungtvan@hufi.edu.vn 
Bài viết nêu lên thực trạng an ninh tài chính của hệ thống ngân hàng thương mại Việt 
Nam trong giai đoạn 2010-2017. Dựa trên nguồn dữ liệu thứ cấp thu thập từ báo cáo của ngân 
hàng nhà nước và dựa trên các chỉ tiêu đo lường an ninh tài chính của hệ thống ngân hàng, cụ 
thể là bốn chỉ tiêu điển hình là tỷ lệ nợ xấu, khả năng sinh lời, tỷ lệ an toàn vốn, Tỷ lệ dư nợ 
cho vay so với tổng tiền gửi. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy trong giai đoạn 2010-2017 mặc dù 
Việt Nam đã kiểm soát được các chỉ tiêu về an ninh tài chính của hệ thống ngân hàng thương 
mại nhưng vẫn còn tiềm ẩn nhiều rủi ro nhất là trong các hoạt động tín dụng, mà cụ thể là tỷ 
lệ nợ xấu vẫn còn cao, hoạt động giám sát tài chính tiền tệ chưa hiệu quả nên chưa đóng góp 
nhiều cho công tác đảm bảo an ninh, an toàn tài chính của toàn hệ thống. Trên cơ sở đó, bài 
viết đề xuất một số khuyến nghị nhằm tăng cường an ninh tài chính trong hoạt động ngân 
hàng. 
Từ khóa: An ninh tài chính, ngân hàng thương mại, thực trạng.