Factors Affecting the Performance of Vietnamese Commercial Banks: Does Basel II Matter?

This paper examines the main factors affecting the bank performance under the Basel II implementation in Vietnam, a transitional economy in Asia. We pay special attention to the implementation duration of the Basel II convention and how it affects profitability. Thereby, we can evaluate the effectiveness of Basel II in the whole system according to the roadmap to 2020. We employ the panel data regression method to analyze a sample of 300 bank-year observations from 25 commercial banks during the 2008–2019 period. Our empirical findings show that the size of the bank, net interest margin, state ownership, and Basel II convention have positive effects on bank profitability. However, our empirical findings indicate that bank age and branch number negatively reduce bank performance. Finally, our results indicate that commercial banks earn extra profit from delaying the implementation of Basel II. However, commercial banks will encounter higher credit, and operational risks arising from delaying the implementation of Basel II standards. Therefore, our study contributes to the insights into the bank’s management to enhance profitability, especially after implementing Basel II in a transitional economy. Finally, our study also provides policy implications for bank managers and banking supervisory to maintain the sustainable development of the banking system.