BANK LIQUIDITY AND LENDING BEHAVIOR: EVIDENCE FROM THE VIETNAMESE BANKING SYSTEM

The study investigates the impact of liquidity on lending behavior, in the form of loan growth, at Vietnamese commercial banks for the period of 2007-2017. Notably, we also explore heterogeneous effects with the support of the generalized method of moments (GMM) for the dynamic panel data models. The robust result confirmed by alternative techniques indicates that banks with more liquidity tend to expand lending more, implying the precautionary motive of liquidity storage to finance future investments. Further analysis documents that this effect seems to be stronger for state-owned banks and mitigated in the case of banks having higher capital ratios, while we find the inconclusive results for bank size. In addition to extending the existing literature, this study provides insightful implications for bank managers and policymakers in Vietnam and other emerging economies as well.