Bank capital leverage: An empirical study of Vietnamese commercial banks during the pilot period of Basel regulatory

Abstract

This paper is aimed to analyze the evolution of the on-balance-sheet of Vietnamese commercial banks' leverage ratio during the period 2008Q1 to 2015Q2. There was a pilot program from 2010Q4 to 2015Q2 in the period. The purpose of the pilot program is to assess whether commercial Vietnamese banks are ready to adopt Basel 2 and Basel 3 regulatory framework. We divide the full period into two sub-periods according to pre- and post- of the capital regulation requirements which are launching by the State Bank of Vietnam. Analysis was made by application of the pooled regression model on the panel data. We found that in the post-period of the capital regulation requirements, most of the leverage of the Vietnamese commercial banks is dependent on both the household deposit and the interbank capital. The situation of post-period is similar as the pre-period of the launch capital regulation requirement of the State Bank of Vietnam, but the volume of the interbank capital is become smaller. From the regulation perspective, our findings suggest that the State Bank of Vietnam should supervise the assets quality of off - balance sheet and the value ratio of collateral is accepted (called "haircut") by the Vcb to avoid resulting liquidity risk. We also remind the Vcb about the improvement of own capital for the achievement of capital regulation requirement.