Anti-corruption and bank performance: Evidence from a socialist-oriented economy

Abstract

This current study aims to investigate the impact of anti-corruption on bank performance in Vietnam, an emerging socialist country with a high level of perceived corruption. An increasing number of financial frauds and corruption have been made public in Vietnam as a result of a vigorous anti-corruption drive in the country. Using a news-based approach to measure anti-corruption in Vietnam, the results of our empirical analysis suggest that anti-corruption has a positive impact on the profitability of Vietnamese commercial banks, however, it manifests in the long term. We do not find an immediate impact of anti-corruption on overall bank performance, but we find that bank profit per branch increases under intensified anti-corruption in the country, suggesting that optimizing branch structure is important to Vietnamese bank under uncertainty.