Determinants Influencing Information Transparency in Vietnamese Commercial Banks

Information transparency ensures that market players all have the opportunity to access the same information to come up with their assessment of the banks' financial situation, performance and risks to reach effective investment decisions. This research is conducted to investigate the levels of impact of determinants on information transparency by examining the case studies of Vietnamese commercial banks. This study combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods, based on interviews of 32 specialists in banking, accounting and auditing fields, which were conducted to explore determinants influencing information transparency and to develop measurement scales. Then, a survey of 160 managers of commercial banks, audit firms, and accounting managers of firms who frequently had transactions with banks was carried out to investigate the statistical significance of these determinants. The results show that, out of seven determinants that have significant impacts on the banks' information transparency, commitment from banks' senior management regarding transparency in information disclosure has the highest impact, followed by state governance, auditing, information infrastructure, credit rating agencies, personnel and bank performance. Accordingly, we provide some recommendations for improving information transparency in the Vietnamese banking industry context as a case study and in emerging countries context in general.