Ownership complexity and loan quality: Evidence for listed commercial banks in Vietnam

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship among aspects of bank ownership complexity, including ownership dispersion and type, and the quality of bank loan portfolio. The data used for analysis is an unbalanced panel consisting of 13 listed commercial banks in Vietnam for the period of 2010 - 2019. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is used as an indicator of loan quality. The results showed that ownership dispersion, calculation based on the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index of large shareholding, improves the loan quality. Foreign ownership is also found to have positive impact on the loan quality. However, there is no relationship established between government ownership and loan quality.