Banking reform in Vietnam

Vietnam’s banking sector is expected to have one of the highest growth rates in Asia during the next few years due to the country’s continued economic expansion, rising household incomes, and relatively low penetration of existing banking services. Over the past two decades, the Vietnamese government has undertaken a series of reforms to strengthen and modernize the sector as part of the country’s move towards a more open and marketoriented economy. Many of these reforms have also been motivated by Vietnam’s growing participation in international agreements and ongoing efforts to adopt international standards such as the Basel capital framework. Key reforms include a restructuring of the banking system, a gradual opening to foreign investment, the partial privatization of state-owned banking institutions, and measures to strengthen the capitalization of Vietnamese banks. This Asia Focus report provides an overview of Vietnam’s banking sector, reviews significant developments since the mid 1980s, and highlights key challenges to reform implementation.Banks and banking - Vietnam

Dynamics of banking technology adoption: an application to internet banking

This paper is concerned with examining behaviour of firms (banks) and consumers (banks’ customers) in the event of a new technology (internet banking) introduction. The determinants of consumer adoption of internet banking are characterised using survey data from Korea in both static and dynamic framework. I find evidence that adoption of internet banking is influenced by sex, age, marital status, degree of exposure to internet banking, and the characteristics of the banks. A duration analysis shows no evidence of first mover advantage (order effects) in internet banking whilst the largest bank (rank effects) in commercial banking remains dominant in internet banking. The results imply that the internet banking adoption is dominated by social norm effects

Are the causes of bank distress changing? can researchers keep up?

Since 1990, the banking sector has experienced enormous legislative, technological and financial changes, yet research into the causes of bank distress has slowed. One consequence is that current supervisory surveillance models may no longer accurately represent the banking environment. After reviewing the history of these models, we provide empirical evidence that the characteristics of failing banks has changed in the last ten years and argue that the time is right for new research employing new empirical techniques. In particular, dynamic models that utilize forward-looking variables and address various types of bank risk individually are promising lines of inquiry. Supervisory agencies have begun to move in these directions, and we describe several examples of this new generation of early-warning models that are not yet widely known among academic banking economists.Bank failures ; Bank supervision

Decomposition of the efficiency of the Chinese state-owned commercial banks at the provincial level

This study adopts a bank production function approach to the measurement of banking efficiency at the provincial level in the Chinese state-owned commercial banking sector from 1998 to 2003. Applying Data Envelopment Analysis and efficiency decomposition analysis, this paper has revealed a significant level of pure technical input inefficiency and, to a lesser extent, scale inefficiency across the provincial branches of all the banking groups. The study has also uncovered the extent of inefficiency in individual banking inputs and provincial branches. Finally, the provincial-level efficiency is further decomposed into within-banking-group and between-banking-group effects

Internet banking : from the perspective of Malaysian bankers

The electronic revolution in the Malaysian banking sector is now more noticeable as banks are trying to keep abreast with information,communication and technology (ICT). Internet banking is a new delivery channel that offers a one-stop service and information unit to gain competitive advantage in the banking sector. While it promises enormous benefit both to consumers and bank,what do bank managers,as providers perceive internet banking? This article seeks to examine the perceptions of bank managers on internet banking with respect to strategic,operational,customer-related and technological issues. A total of 54 responses were received from questionnaires distributed to bank managers in the Northern region of Malaysia. Interestingly, they provide conflicting views. While internet banking enhances customer service,it is perceive to have reduced human resource and banker-customer relationships. Hence, this finding suggests that the management should continue to offer personalised services to its customers.Internet banking should be used as an information and transactional tool to complement and enhance banking operation

Shadow Banking and Systemic Risk in Europe and China

We compare the European and Chinese shadow banking systems. While the European shadow banking system is better developed than the Chinese shadow banking system, herd behavior and other factors in European markets create systemic risk, which contributed in part to the financial crisis. Dispersion of risk across the "under-developed" shadow banking system in China has led to some cases of localized, concentrated risk, but not to systemic risk. We discuss proposed European shadow banking regulation and its implications for systemic risk, and discuss what lessons China might glean from such policies. We also discuss what lessons China's diverse and systemically uncoordinated shadow banking sector might provide for Europe

Rural banking in China

This Asia Focus report presents an overview of China’s rural banking system, historical and recent reforms, and additional areas for improvement.Banks and banking - China

U.S. banking deregulation and self-employment: a differential impact on those in need

Starting in 1978, the U.S. banking sector was gradually deregulated in terms of restrictions on geographical expansion. This paper examines the impact of intrastate branching deregulation on (state-specific) self-employment income growth rate. If postreform changes in the banking structure led to improved lending to previously underserved (potential) businessmen, their self-employment income would accelerate, as banks are the prime source of finance for self-employment. Based on a simple model adopted from Evans and Jovanovic (1989), it is hypothesized that banking deregulation would particularly impact self-employment of discriminated against social groups. Consistent with the hypothesis, cross-state evidence suggests that the growth rate of self-employment income increased after reform, with the effect being more pronounced for women and non-white minorities at the low end of income distribution. Based on the obtained results, this paper suggests that more competitive banking environment after branching reform has mitigated prejudicial discrimination in lending. The analysis casts light on real effects of banking deregulation, on the effect of onsolidation in the banking sector on individuals targeted by the Equal Credit Opportunity (ECOA) and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and on a function of competition in reducing discrimination.Bank supervision ; Banks and banking

Should the FDIC worry about the FHLB? the impact of Federal Home Loan Bank advances on the Bank Insurance Fund

Does growing commercial-bank reliance on Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) advances increase expected losses to the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF)? Our approach to this question begins by modeling the link between advances and expected losses. We then quantify the effect of advances on default probability with a CAMELS-downgrade model. Finally, we assess the impact on loss-given-default by estimating resolution costs in two scenarios: the liquidation of all banks with failure probabilities above two percent and the liquidation of all banks with advance-to-asset ratios above 15 percent. The evidence points to non-trivial increases in expected losses. The policy implication is that the FDIC should price FHLBank-related exposures.Banks and banking ; Financial institutions ; Deposit insurance