Mergers and acquisitions (ma) in banking industry the case of vietnam,graduation thesis

THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -***** - GRADUATION THESIS Topic: MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS (M&A) IN BANKING INDUSTRY - THE CASE OF VIETNAM Supervisor : Dr Pham Thi Hoang Anh Student : Trinh Cong Tan Class : ATCA Major : English for Finance and Banking Student Code : 12A7511155 Hanoi, 2013 DEDICATION I dedicate this graduation thesis To my family And To Banking Academy of Vietnam ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Foremost, I would like to express the profound gratitude to my supervisor Dr Pham Thi Hoang Anh at Banking Academy of Vietnam for her continuous support of my graduation thesis as well as her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge about Internal Finance She guided and helped me through timely suggestions, valuable advices and specially the sympathetic attitude, which always inspired me for hard work Without her co-operation, it was not possible for me to complete my graduation thesis To all the professors and teachers in Banking Academy, especially in Faculty of Foreign Languages, it is a pleasure to pay tribute to their meaningful and valuable lectures and their helpful feedbacks to my research Above all, my family and best friends deserve special mention for standing by me, giving me words of encouragement, believing in me and support me financially, morally and spiritually Hanoi, June 2013 ABSTRACT After Vietnam joined World Trade Organization (WTO), banking and finance industry in Vietnam is approaching many opportunities as well as facing many challenges Currently, Vietnamese banks are restructured in many aspects such as raising adequate capital, enhancing operating efficiency, improving financial health and competitive capacity in order to compete with coming foreign banks One of the shortest ways for Vietnamese banks to survive and grow in the globalization process is through merging with strong banks or acquiring other smaller banks However, mergers and acquisition (M&A) concept is a novice and M&A activities are still in the beginning steps in Vietnam This thesis reviews the theoretical concept of M&A; introduces situation of M&A market in general, then focuses on M&A activities in banking industry in Vietnam After summarizing several characteristics and problems of M&A activities in Vietnam's banking industry, some solutions are discussed for developing future M&A market in Vietnam TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ii INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS (“M&A”) IN BANKING INDUSTRY 1.1 Overview of Mergers and Acquisitions .4 1.1.1 Concept 1.1.2 Purposes of M&A transactions/activities 1.1.3 Classifications .8 1.2 Mergers and Acquisition in banking industry 10 1.2.1 Concept and rationale of M&A in banking industry .10 1.2.2 Benefits and costs of M&A in banking industry .11 1.2.3 Methods of implementing M&A in banking industry 14 CHAPTER 2: CURRENT SITUATION OF M&A IN VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL BANKS 17 2.1 Current situation and reasons for M&A in Vietnamese banking industry 17 2.1.1 Legal framework for M&A activity in Vietnam .17 2.1.2 Current situation of M&A in banking industry 20 2.1.3 Reasons for M&A in Vietnamese banks 31 2.2 Evaluating M&As in Vietnamese banking industry 35 2.2.1 Achievements 35 2.2.2 Remaining problems 37 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR M&A ACTIVITIES IN VIETNAMESE BANKING INDUSTRY 39 3.1 Orientation of M&A for Vietnamese commercial banks .39 3.1.1 Horizontal merger (Two or more banks merging) 40 3.1.2 Cross-border M&A 41 3.2 Recommendations for M&A in the Vietnamese banking industry 42 3.2.1 Improve legal framework for banking M&A activities 42 3.2.2 Solutions from the commercial banks .43 CONCLUSION .46 APPENDICES .48 REFERENCES 53 Graduation Thesis i Banking Academy LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Domestic deals in banking sector in 2011-2012 (page 21) Table 2: Some indicators of banking operations after the merger (page 25) Table 3: Inbound deals in recent years (page 28) Table 4: Outbound deals in recent years (page 30) Table 5: Comparison between Decree 69 and Draft of new decree in terms of maximum ownership percentage (page 39) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Parties involving in an M&A deal (page 6) Figure 2: Loan/GDP Ratio in Vietnam over years (page 32) Figure 3: Annual Credit Growth (%) (page 32) Figure 4: Gap between Average Lending rate and ROIC, 2007-2011 (page 34) Figure 5: Bad debt rate through years, 2007-2013 (page 34) Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis ii Banking Academy LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Explanation BIDV Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam BOD Board of Directors BOM Board of Management CAR Capital Adequacy Ratio Eximbank Vietnam Export – Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank Ficombank First Commercial Bank GDP Gross Domestic Product Habubank Hanoi Building Joint-stock Commercial Bank IFC International Finance Corporation LienVietPostBank Lien Viet Post Commercial Joint-Stock Bank M&A Mergers and Acquisitions NPL Non-performing loan OMO Open Market Operations Sacombank Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank SBV The State Bank of Vietnam SCB Saigon Commercial Bank SHB Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank TinNghiaBank Vietnam Tin Nghia Joint-Stock Commercial Bank Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd Vietcombank Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam Vietinbank Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade VNPost Vietnam Post Corporation VPSC Vietnam Postal Saving Service Company WTO World Trade Organization Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis Banking Academy INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation behind the research In the context of increasingly intensive integration in international economy, the financial market in general and banking sector in particular in Vietnam is growing strongly and gradually asserted its role in the development of national economy The advent of a series of banks in the recent years shows strong appeal from this potential sector However, finance and banking market in Vietnam are still considered weak compared to other countries in the region, especially in the recent period While the economy is suffering the effects of the global financial crisis that has no signals of ending, the banking industry is being impacted first Financial crisis leads to economic stagnation and high inflation In order to curb high inflation, the measure applied by the State Bank is tightening credit This directly affects the business operations of the commercial banks Meanwhile, the implementation of the roadmap for financial liberalization generates much pressure on Vietnamese commercial banks to compete with foreign banks Furthermore, under increasing strain to increase its charter capital specified in the Decree 141/2006ND-CP, it is a big challenge for small banks Faced with this situation, to survive and compete with foreign financial institutions the Vietnamese commercial banks might choose the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to create the larger banks with operational efficiency and high competitiveness M&A activities in finance and banking sector is considered an inevitable trend and an important factor in the improvement of Vietnamese banking system At present, M&A activities in Vietnam initially develop in both quantity and value, but in the modest scale compared to other countries in the region and the world The banking sector also witnessed several successful M&A deals such as the merger of three banks: Ficombank - TinNghiaBank - SCB, Mizuho Corporate Bank (Japan) bought 15% stake in Vietcombank, etc However currently M&A transactions in Vietnam occur with no clear regulations Modern-day M&A in the banking sector was currently mentioned in six Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis Banking Academy different laws: Law on Enterprises, Law on Competition, Law on Securities, Law on Investment, Law on credit institution, Law on the State Bank and many other documents The insufficient legal framework and the limited understanding of M&A have caused commercial banks to be confused and passive under the indispensable development trend of, leading to setbacks in M&A deals and being acquired by competitors in the market In order to better understanding the situation of M&A, the difficulties banks have encountered during M&A, the development trend of M&A to healthy financial market in Vietnam, the author has selected the title: "Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in banking industry – the case of Vietnam” 1.2 Purpose of research and questions The overall objective of the thesis is to study and evaluate M&A activities in the banking sector in recent years, then suggest some solutions for the management agency, the State Bank and the participating banks to take advantage of M&A steadily with selfconfidence, achieve better results in this area before the integration period and contribute to a healthy banking sector Questions: - What are the main reasons for M&A in Vietnamese banking industry? - How did the participating banks achieve their goals after the recent M&A deals? - What is the remaining problems to restructure Vietnamese banking industry in terms of M&A activities? 1.3 - Scope Subject of the research: this thesis refers primarily to M&A transaction in Vietnamese banking industry - Scope of the study: the thesis analyzes the M&A deals among domestic and foreign banks in recent years (from 2005 to present) Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 39 Banking Academy CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR M&A ACTIVITIES IN VIETNAMESE BANKING INDUSTRY 3.1 Orientation of M&A for Vietnamese commercial banks Vietnam economy is experiencing an aggressive restructuring program by the Government At corporate level, restructuring is focusing mainly on financial sector namely banks and securities firms It is SBV’s strategy to reduce the number of commercial banks from 43 in 2010 to just 13-15 by 2015 The Government even provides open opportunities for foreign investors to acquire controlling interest at the 10 weak banks classified in Group “Weak Bank” in a recent Decision by Prime Minister In early 2013, the State Bank announced a draft of decree on foreign investors buying shares of Vietnamese credit institutions, which is expected to replace the existing Decree 69/2007/ND-CP The State Bank will loosen some standards and allow foreign investors to participate more in Vietnamese banking system This proposal did not seem to meet foreign investors’ expectation about an ownership rate more than proposed or even domination of domestic banks However, there are two important changes in this draft, which are: (i) foreigners can own more than 30% of the weak credit institutions if approved by Prime Minister and (ii) remove some criteria that may hinder the weak credit institutions to sell shares to foreign entities These two changes allow the credit institution to search foreign capital more easily and can be expected to accelerate the current process of restructuring banks Table 5: Comparison between Decree 69 and Draft of new decree in terms of maximum ownership percentage Decree 69 (old) Foreign investors 5% Draft of new Decree  Foreign individual: 5%  Foreign organization: 15% A foreign credit institution 10% 20% 15-20% 20% 30% 30% and related person Strategic foreign investor and related person Total foreign ownership Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 40 Banking Academy (Strategic foreign investor is a partner committed to support Vietnamese credit institutions in writing about technology transfer, product development and operations management services, etc Foreign investors include individuals and foreign organizations) From the orientation above, M&A activities in the future is supposed to be more active with two main form as follows: 3.1.1 Horizontal merger (Two or more banks merging) This is the most likely trend occurred in Vietnam The gains are worthy synergy from two banks, improve financial capacity, reduce overlapping functions, exploit new customers, diversify products and services and strengthen position in the market In this case, depending on the scale, the nature of M&A will have its own characteristics:  Mergers between small banks: we can be interpreted as the banks in-group three merged together This bank group has the highest risk of merger  Advantages: - The banks with the same characteristics as the operating management, type of customer will easily adapt to each other after the merger - Become larger banks that can meet the requirements of the charter capital, banking stability and create greater position  Difficulties: - Since the two banks have similar scale, it would be difficult to assign the managers of the new bank, which can cause internal disunity - The bank would not make big changes due to no crucial support from the larger banks Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 41 Banking Academy  Merger of large and medium banks: The merger will form a large bank with high competitiveness with foreign banks This is how the international banks apply when the financial market developed stably The banks may be merged fully or partly  Advantages: - The banks of equal scale will be more favorable to the merger - Reduce competitor and create the dominant force in the market  Difficulty: - The negotiation and operation will be difficult because neither of sides want to lose the inherent position  Merger of the medium and large banks and small banks: This is the most likely form when smaller banks want to improve operational capacity while large banks want to expand their market as quickly as possible  Advantages: - Small banks can avoid instability affecting operation system - Large banks can exploit the market potential of small banks  Difficulties: - Due to the different scale, problems of different products and services will need to be more concerned This type of merger can be applied in the current situation that larger banks in group one and two own shares in smaller banks in group three 3.1.2 Cross-border M&A Recently, this has been done by foreign banks though the form of strategic shareholders of domestic banks When liberalization is opened fully, it is probable that foreign banks will acquire fully the domestic banks Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 42 Banking Academy  Advantages: domestic banks will receive financial, technical and management experience supports from foreign banks, have the opportunity to diversify products and services  Difficulties: Vietnam's financial system may depend on foreign banks; different cultural environment will disrupt banking operations It is truly that the form selected relies primarily on development strategy, specific characteristics of each bank in compliance with market factors as well as the orientation of the State Bank In order to enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese commercial banks as well as the M&A process in the future, it is necessary to name some particular solutions 3.2 Recommendations for M&A in the Vietnamese banking industry 3.2.1 Improve legal framework for banking M&A activities Proposed solutions to round legal regulations on banking M&A deals off is as follows: First, build a centralized, unified and convenient legal system regarding M&A of commercial banks Simultaneously, as a form of economic concentration governed by the Law on competition, the provisions on M&A of banks must be appropriate to meet the conditions of the control of unfair competition to avoid monopoly in the banking market Second, it is necessary to consider additional legislation on the M&A of Vietnamese banks listed overseas, foreign credit institution or foreign investors who buy equity in more than one Vietnamese bank Third, amend and complete legal system to conform to the committed agreements which Vietnam has signed bilaterally and multilaterally; develop a roadmap and overall strategy to these international commitments and publicize this process to the banks Fourth, promulgate rules and appropriate sanctions on requirements of announcement of banks’ financial status transparently and accurately in accordance with Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 43 Banking Academy applicable international standards, to minimize the deviation of communicating information among the commercial banks Finally, promulgate policies to encourage banks to actively merger throughout tools such as tax incentives, capital-restructuring support through the interbank market, reducing the required reserve ratio 3.2.2 Solutions from the commercial banks 3.2.2.1 A reasonable plan for M&A The first and foremost key element is that banks must have a clear and detailed plan with specific route, as well as anticipate the risks that may impede the merger to mitigate those risks before the merger process After the merger, they must continuously review actual problems at some future point Weakness of banks in the past is predominantly due to liquidity If after the merger banks not better their management system of liquidity risk, credit risk, the post-merger bank cannot be healthy In addition, bad debt settlement is the focal point of any banking M&A transactions Banks should have a specific plan to deal with these debts They can handle with different methods such as debt trading company, separating the bad debts before the merger Only when handling the bad loans, merging a weak bank with a strong bank will not weaken the latter one 3.2.2.2 Professional consulting company Theoretically, valuation is be regarded as a basis to promote financial transactions Nevertheless, there is no perfect valuation method to calculate merger’s benefit Ordinary methods like discounted cash flows are used but complex and inaccurate In addition, there are mistakes in the evaluation of assets and liabilities If there are more buyer than seller in the transaction, buyers usually lose the negotiation After that deal, the seller‘s price is usually higher than the actual price Therefore, both parties need to hire professional consultants to mediate in the matter of price Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 3.2.2.3 44 Banking Academy Approach to the M&A legislation To date, Vietnam has no single, unified M&A law M&A rules are found scattered in different pieces of legislation These include the Law on Enterprises, the Law on Investment, the Law on Securities, the Law on Competition, the Civil Code, specialized laws regulating specific business sectors, and the provisions in the international treaties to which Vietnam is a party The law of hierarchy is that provisions of the international treaties prevail over domestic laws; the general laws regulate issues which are not mentioned in the specialized laws; and the specialized laws take residual prevalence over the general laws with respect to specific industries Although in practice the above-mentioned rule of hierarchy may not be always clear or consistent, an appropriate approach for a foreign purchaser in an M&A deal should be as follows  First, check the relevant international treaties (currently and most usually referred to, the commitments on market openings that Vietnam made upon Vietnam’s accession to the WTO, or the “WTO Commitments”) to confirm whether or not a foreign purchaser is permitted to acquire the target company or the target assets;  Second, check the relevant specialized laws, the Law on Securities, the Law on Competition, and the target company’s by-laws, to confirm whether or not a foreign purchaser needs to be subject to, and thus needs clearing, any other restrictions, to enable an acquisition onto the target company or the target assets; and  Third, check the general laws (usually the Law on Enterprises, the Law on Investment, the Civil Code, and forex control regulations) to ensure the application dossiers for statutory registrations/approvals are in compliance with the requirements, and the transaction documents are valid and enforceable under the laws of Vietnam Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 3.2.2.4 45 Banking Academy Prepare for post-merger The process of integrating the business operations and functions of the parties after the M&A can conduct a number of issues that the two sides need prepare For example, the parties have not utilized the strength of products and services, or not fully transfer the skills and strengths of each party Managers sometimes give themselves more power in imposing aggressive strict supervision for the seller Hence, it is the need to understand partner, culture, and staff with reasonable strategy based on mutual benefit Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 46 Banking Academy CONCLUSION In the context of extensive integration into the international economy, M&A activity in the finance and banking sector in Vietnam has a signal of expansion It is forecasted that in the near future, this activity will grow drastically and play an important role in development of Vietnam economics as well as in global integration This thesis has analyzed and clarified the following issues First, thesis have presented clearly at the reasonable level the fundamental concepts of M&A in general and M&A transaction in the banking sector in particular These definitions are extracted from experts’ viewpoint in the world as well as in Vietnamese legal system Along with defining M&A terms, the thesis also provided assessment, analysis of benefits and costs as well as the classification of M&A transactions based on territory and links between banks The understanding of the processes and procedures in terms of M&A will help readers to easily grasp the nature and meaning of each type of M&A in particular cases in reality Second, in addition to presenting the legal aspects of M&A in Vietnam, the thesis provided objective evaluation of the real situation of M&A activities in Vietnamese banking industry in recent years Since the State Bank formally issued the restructuring policy of the banking system, the banking industry has witnessed immediately success of M&A deals between domestic banks, notably the merger among three commercial banks: Ficombank, TinNghiaBank, and SCB; and the merger between Habubank and SHB Simultaneously, the market also saw an increasing penetration of foreign banks throughout “mega” deals between Tokyo Mitsubishi and Vietinbank, and Vietcombank and Mizuho Corporate Bank Through analysis and comparison of information obtained from the newspapers, the Internet, the reports on the banking industry, the thesis presented a brief summary of the reasons, process and the results of the inbound and cross-border M&A deals, then assess the achievements and the remaining problems existing in M&A activities in banking sector Third, from analyzing and clarifying the empirical situation, the thesis has provided predictions and orientation of M&A activities of the banks in the Vietnamese market in the coming years Furthermore, the thesis also made recommendations to improve the weakness of the legal system on M&A as well as the macro-management Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 47 Banking Academy of the Government Finally, banks should pay attention to given solutions when carrying out M&A transactions Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 48 Banking Academy APPENDICES Appendix 1: Total asset and charter capital of some foreign banks in Vietnam, 2012 (Unit: million VND) 60,000 53,319 50,000 40,000 33,964 30,000 16,641 20,000 10,000 3,000 3,200 3,000 5,759 4,547 - 3,000 HSBC VN Standard Chartered VN Total asset Hong Leong Capital (Source: www.vietfin.net/quy-mo-cua-cac-ngan-hang-tai-viet-nam-2012/) Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 49 Banking Academy Appendix 2: Total asset of commercial banks in Vietnam, 2012 (Unit: million VND) Total asset Techcombank ACB MB Eximbank SacomBank SCB SHB Maritime Bank SeABank VPBank Southern Bank DongABank VIB OCeanBank LienVietPostBank HDBank MHB ABBank GPBank TrustBank OCB BacABank VietCapitalBank VietABank NaviBank WesternBank TienPhongBank PGBank DaiABank KienLongBank VietBank NamABank SaigonBank BaoVietBank MDBank 179,733 177,012 175,612 170,252 151,915 148,697 117,569 110,000 101,092 98,000 72,159 65,548 63,784 62,639 60,000 50,000 47,282 44,175 32,000 27,171 27,000 25,344 22,896 22,513 20,916 20,551 20,050 19,581 19,227 18,581 18,255 17,612 14,932 12,916 8,596 - 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000 (Source: www.vietfin.net/quy-mo-cua-cac-ngan-hang-tai-viet-nam-2012/) Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 50 Banking Academy Appendix 3: Inbound and Domestic M&A deals by sector, 2011 (source: Stoxplus) Appendix 4: Inbound and Domestic M&A deals by sector, Q1/2012 (source: Stoxplus) Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 51 Banking Academy Appendix 5: M&A terms Term Acquisition Definition The term used when an enterprise (known as acquired company) seeks to hold control for other businesses (known as the target company) through acquiring all or a major proportion shares or assets of the target company Conglomerate A combination case for companies operating in the irrelevant fields merger of business, neither unrelated buyers - and sellers nor competitors Conversion The price at which a convertible security can be converted Price (exchanged) into another security If a $100 convertible note has a conversion price of $5, then the holder of the convertible note can exchange the note for 20 shares of common stock (i.e., the amount of the debt divided by the conversion price) Dilution This term has two common meanings From an accounting perspective, dilution is the net difference between the purchase price per share paid by a new investor to buy a security from the company and the tangible book value per share of the company prior to the offering From an investor perspective, dilution is also the change to an investor's percentage ownership in a company that results from a subsequent issuance of additional equity securities Domestic Deal occurred between local companies or foreign owned companies Deal doing business in Vietnam Economics of A term that is used to describe the reduction in cost-per-unit as more scale units are produced Equity This term has three meanings Equity is the opposite of debt and represents the residual economic ownership or claims in a company after the claims of all creditors have been satisfied Common stock and preferred stock are each classified as an equity security From an accounting perspective, equity (or stockholders' equity) is a company's net worth (i.e., the difference between a company's assets Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 52 Banking Academy and its liabilities) From a corporate finance perspective, the equity value of a company is the total value of its capital stock (i.e., the sum of the value of all classes of common stock and preferred stock) Friendly The acquisition happens when the companies cooperate in acquisition negotiation The acquisition may originate from the mutual benefits of both parties Horizontal The merger is usually between the companies in the same business merger sector and the market Hostile The acquisition happens without the support of the target company acquisition Inbound deal Deal in which oversea corporations enter into Vietnam market through investing in or buying local company Liquidity The ability of a security holder to convert a security to cash or to a security that is the equivalent of cash Majority & By laws, one who holds more than 5% is defined as “substantial Minority shareholdings”; more than 35% is “veto right” and more than 50% is “controlling right” In this research, a deal involved a transfer of 49% equity stake or more is considered as a majority interest transaction of less than 49% is a minority interest transaction Merger The term used when two or more enterprises agree to share assets, market share, and brand together to form a completely new business and end up the existence of the two firms Outbound Deal in which Vietnam companies invest in offshore through buying Deal overseas company Return on The proceeds from an investment, during a specific period, Investment calculated as a percentage of the original investment Also, net profit (ROI) after taxes divided by average total assets Vertical The merger takes place between companies located in different merger stages of the production process or service provider, or other customers Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12 Graduation Thesis 53 Banking Academy REFERENCES Law No 60/2005/QH11 on Enterprises dated 29 November 2005, as amended by the law on amending a number of articles of laws relating to capital construction dated 19 June 2009 (“Law on Enterprises”) Law No 59/2005/QH11 on Investment dated 29 November 2005 (“Law on Investment”) Law No 70/2006/QH11 on Securities dated 29 June 2006, as amended on 24 November 2010(“Law on Securities”) Law No 27/2004/QH11 on Competition dated December 2004 (“Law on Competition”) Civil Code No 33/2005/QH11 dated 14 June 2005 (“Civil Code”) “Vietnamese M&A Research Report, Issue 2”, Stoxplus Corporation’s Research, 15 May 2012 “Report on Economic Concentration Activities in Vietnam 2012”, Vietnam Competition Authority, September 2012 “Report on Banking Industry”, Phuong Nam Securities Company’s Research, 16 April 2013 Internet sources (Wikipedia.com, Investopedia.com, Cafef.vn, and Vietnamese banks’ websites) Trinh Cong Tan ATCA – K12