Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) Historical Interest Rates

Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) are safe and flexible bonds for individual investors that allows us to enjoy returns that increase over time, and redeem in any month without penalty.

Singapore Savings Bonds are a special type of Singapore Government Securities (SGS) with these features that make them suitable for individual investors:

• Safe : Savings Bonds are backed by the Singapore Government. In addition, you can always redeem your bonds in exchange for the amount invested, i.e. no capital losses.
• Long-term : You can invest for up to 10 years and earn interest that increases over time. The longer you hold your bond, the higher your return.
• Flexible : You don’t have to decide at the start how long you want to hold your Savings Bonds. You can get your funds back within a month, with no penalty.
• No capital losses : SSBs are non-tradable securities which protect individuals from capital losses.

Historical Rates From October 2015 To 2023

The SSB interest rate history has seen wild fluctuations since its inception in 2015 which you can see in the chart here.

To have a better idea of the SSB rates trend and where it is head, we simply have to understand that the returns from holding an issue of SSB to maturity shall always equal the ten-year SGS reference yield.

The historical interest rates for Singapore Savings Bonds are listed in the table below.

If you are viewing this table on your mobile phone, you might find it helpful to rotate your phone horizontally.

• Highlighted returns for issues that exceed 3%
• Highlighted over-subscribed SSB issues
• Highlighted issues with less than 10% redeemed by investors

Login To Singapore Savings Bonds Portal

Here is another helpful tip for you – the Monetary Authority of Singapore has a very useful SSB Portal that lists all relevant Singapore Savings Bonds information for you after logging in via SingPass.

After logging in, the SSB Portal allows you to

• View investment summary (see below screenshot)
• Keep track of upcoming interest payments
• Compare interest rates of different issues of SSBs

Everything You Need To Know About Singapore Savings Bonds

Maybe you still can’t decide whether to invest in Singapore Savings Bonds even after taking a look at the SSB interest rate history over the past seven years?

This article is tailored for you as I’ll share with you 37 things about Singapore Savings Bonds that will make you more knowledgeable about it than most people are.

Or perhaps you are just starting out on your investment journey? Then this high interest rate environment is an amazing time to start!

Risk-free rates are high, and therefore idle cash now have the chance earn really attractive yield.

I have broken down the article on Singapore Savings Bonds into different sections to make it easier for you to digest all the information.

A. Background on Savings Bonds

1. What are Singapore Savings Bonds and why are they introduced?

Savings Bonds are a special type of Singapore Government Securities (SGS) with these features that make them suitable for individual investors:

• Safe : Savings Bonds are backed by the Singapore Government. In addition, you can always redeem your bonds in exchange for the amount invested, i.e. no capital losses.
• Long-term : You can invest for up to 10 years and earn interest that increases over time. The longer you hold your bond, the higher your return.
• Flexible : You don’t have to decide at the start how long you want to hold your Savings Bonds. You can get your funds back within a month, with no penalty.
• No capital losses : SSBs are non-tradable securities which protect individuals from capital losses.

In essence, Singapore Saving Bonds are introduced to provide individual investors with a long term saving option that offers safe returns.

Aww, how nice.

2. How much Singapore Savings Bonds are there in existence?

In total, about 120,000 individuals hold more than S$5.7 billion worth of SSB as at the start of 2022.

Considering that the Singapore population is estimated to be 5.6 million this year, this means that 1 in every 50 people has invested in the Savings Bonds with an average holding of $47,500.

I know – you are thinking that the numbers don’t really make sense. How can there be only S$5.7 billion considering that already S$1 billion was offered in last month’s issue – that’s because people have been redeeming their older Savings Bonds with lower yield for newer ones.

And of course, don’t forget that demand for SSBs in early issues were much lower due to the inferior rates. The juicy yields that we’re seeing now is a very recent phenomenon which you’ll see in a chart below!

You can use this MAS tool to check the amount of outstanding Savings Bonds.

3. Is Singapore Savings Bonds safe?

If you are feeling jittery over why the Singapore Government needs to borrow so much money, you can be assured to know that the Singapore Government currently issues domestic debt securities such as SSB for reasons unrelated to the Government’s fiscal needs.

• Singapore Government Securities (SGS) are issued to develop the domestic debt market
• Special SGS are non-tradable bonds issued primarily to meet the investment needs of the Central Provident Fund (CPF), Singapore’s national pension fund
• SSB are introduced to provide individual investors with a long term saving option that offers safe returns.

Under the Government Securities Act, the borrowing proceeds from the issuance of these securities cannot be spent and are invested.

The Singapore Government operates on a balanced budget policy. In earlier decades of growth as an emerging economy, Singapore recorded healthy budget surpluses, which also contributed to the reserves.

Trivial : Singapore is one of the few countries in the world with a net asset position, and our financial assets are well in excess of our liabilities.

And yes, both principal and interest payments are guaranteed by the Singapore Government.

4. How is the Savings Bonds yield determined?

Savings Bonds offer a return that corresponds with how long we hold them for.

By design, we receive less interest at the start, but the amount “steps up” or increases over time. The longer we hold our Savings Bonds, the higher our effective return is.

The interest rates of each Savings Bond issue are based on the average Singapore Government Securities (SGS) yields the month before applications for that issue open.

If you are into the Maths behind SSBs, the official documentation is the authoritative source to learn how the coupon rate for each year of the Savings Bond’s tenor is determined.

However, note that interest rates may be adjusted to maintain the “step-up” feature if market conditions do not allow it – which is the situation we’re facing right now. (December 2022)

It is important to understand that all else being equal, a bond with a longer maturity will usually pay a higher interest rate than a shorter-term bond, since longer-term debt carry greater risk.

What we’re experiencing right now, whereby short-term bonds are yielding higher than long-term ones, is an anomaly i.e. an inverted yield curve. Historically, an inverted yield curve is seen as an indicator of a pending recession.

Take a look at the yellow line which indicates the yield curve that was 6 months ago.

The chart (yellow line) resembles what the actual June 2022 Savings Bonds returns look like – lower at the start and higher towards the end.

• 1 year – 1.43%
• 2 years – 1.92%
• 5 years – 2.37%
• 10 years – 2.53%

The curve now (blue line) is out of whack which means MAS would have to adjust the interest rate into order to maintain the step-up feature.

As stated in the official documentation – “there may be certain occasions where the reference SGS yields do not allow a particular Savings Bond issue to have a monotonically increasing step-up interest feature.”

MAS shall lower the coupon rates by the minimum amount necessary, to maintain a weakly monotonically increasing step-up coupon schedule.

That’s why we see short term yield upwards of 4% (MoneyOwl money market fund 4.2%) but Singapore Savings Bonds 1-year return is “only” at 2.95%. The reasoning is that the whole intent of Savings Bonds is to encourage long-term savings.

As a result, these adjustments may cause the average annual compounded return on the particular Savings Bond issue over one, two or five years to be less than the one, two and five-year reference yields.

However, the adjustments will not affect the issue’s return if held to maturity, which shall always equal the ten-year reference yield (subject to slight differences of up to +/- 0.03% due to rounding in the computation of the step-up coupons).

So, there you have it. Hope it helps!

5. What is SSB trend and historical interest rates?

The most-asked question is always this so you can refer to the table above, and this chart below.

B. Application for Savings Bonds

6. Who can apply for SSBs?

First of all, only individual investors at least 18 years old can purchase Savings Bonds.

Contrary to what many may think, foreigners and non-Singapore residents can actually buy SSB.

7. How to apply for SSBs (Cash)

First, we would need a bank account with DBS/POSB, OCBC or UOB – plus an ATM card or internet banking access.

Secondly, we also require an individual CDP Securities account that is linked to a bank account, because interest payments and redemption proceeds of SSB will be paid to the designated bank account.

8. How to apply for SSBs (SRS)

First, we would need a SRS account with one of the three SRS Operators (i.e. DBS/POSB, OCBC or UOB) and internet banking access with the SRS operator.

Secondly, you need to be at least 18 years old to open an individual CDP Securities account or a SRS account.

Note – that it is actually not necessary to have a trading account with a securities broker to purchase Savings Bonds.

9. Application fee is SGD$2

A transaction fee of $2 is charged for each Savings Bonds application.

10. Minimum investment amount is SGD$500

Minimum investment amount starts from $500.

This is half of the min. investment for SGS Bonds and T-bills which makes it more accessible for individual investors.

11. Maximum investment amount is SGD$200,000

The maximum amount of Savings Bonds that each investor may hold at any one time is $200,000.

This is the maximum amount of Savings Bonds you can hold across both cash and SRS accounts – there is no separate limits.

Also, take note that there used to be a S$50,000 limit per issue for Singapore Savings Bonds but it has been removed from 1st March 2018.

12. Application timeline

For each issue of the Singapore Savings Bonds,

• Opening date i.e. application starts : First business day of the month, 6pm
• Closing date i.e. application ends : Fourth last business day of the month, 9pm
• Refund of unsuccessful application : Second last business day of the month

13. How often are Savings Bonds issued?

The good news is that Savings Bonds are issued every month without fail.

You can refer to the issuance calendar (see next point) to find out the exact dates of issue.

14. How to check the issuance calendar

We don’t need to scramble at the last minute trying to find out the SSB launch details, because the MAS Singapore Savings Bonds issuance calendar is always made available in advance.

Savings Bonds are issued according to an issuance calendar published around October / November the year before.

C. Allocation Phase

15. When will we know the allotment results?

Allotment results are always released on the third last business day of the month at 3pm.

16. How to check Savings Bond allotment results?

A quick way to check allotment results is to use either the MAS tool or log in to the SSB Portal to determine what we have been allocated.

Each issue of Savings Bonds will also have its own dedicated webpage for all the relevant details.

17. What happens during over-subscription?

When total applications exceed the total issuance size, Savings Bonds are allocated according to the “Quantity Ceiling” format.

Basically, each applicant will receive at least $500 of Savings Bonds.

The amount will increase in multiples of $500 for every applicant until either an applicant has received the full amount applied for, or until all the available bonds have been allotted, whichever comes first.

The actual implementation is a little more complicated but we don’t really need to know too much. More details here if you’re interested.

D. Savings Bonds Redemption

18. What does redemption mean?

When we perform a redemption, we return our Savings Bond to the Singapore Government before it matures, in exchange for our principal plus any accrued interest.

19. How to redeem Singapore Savings Bond?

For cash – submit redemption requests through ATMs or internet banking portals.

For SRS – submit redemption requests via the internet banking porta

20. Redemption fee is SGD$2

 A transaction fee of $2 is charged for each Savings Bonds redemption.

21. Minimum redemption amount is SGD$500

The minimum redemption amount for each Savings Bond issue is $500, and in multiples of $500 up to the amount you have invested.

22. Is there any penalty for early redemption?

There is no penalty for early redemption.

This flexibility is unique to the Savings Bond as the full investment amount with accrued interest will be received by investors.

With early redemption, interest that is already earned is pro-rated so we don’t lose out.

23. Liquidity is effectively max. one month or less

We will receive the redemption amount with any accrued interest by the 2nd business day of the following month.

While this isn’t perfectly liquid, recognize that Savings Bonds is suitable for placing a portion of funds that we want to be able to access fairly quickly but not within days.

24. Redemption Timeline

For each issue of the Savings Bonds,

• Opening date i.e. application starts : First business day of the month, 6pm
• Closing date i.e. application ends : Fourth last business day of the month, 3pm
• Receive redemption amount : 2nd business day of the following month

25. Where will redemption proceeds go to?

Redemption proceeds will be credited to our designated DCS bank account with CDP.

E. Savings Bonds Payouts

26. Step-up interest

In simple terms, rates are usually based on the average SGS yields the month before. As mentioned earlier, there could be occasions whereby this isn’t the case.

If you are after certainty of income, it would be reassuring to to know that at issuance, interest rates for the entire 10-year term are fixed and locked-in for each issue.

27. Which months will we receive the interest payouts?

The interest payment months for Singapore Savings Bonds is every subsequent six months after the issue date.

• Issue date + 6 months
• Issue date + 12 months
• Issue date + 18 months
• Issue date + 24 months
• Etc

For example, I successfully applied for the December SBDEC22 GX22120S issue (in November).

Therefore, my subsequent payout months would be every June and December.

28. Interest payouts to designated bank account only

Interest payments will automatically be credited to our designated DCS bank account with CDP with a specific naming convention e.g. CDP-SBDEC22 which we’ll see in the transaction.

29. SSB Naming Convention

Using my previous example, since I had mentioned the Savings Bonds naming convention briefly, what we would see is SBDEC22 GX22120S in our CDP statement

Interest payment will be reflected as CDP-SBDEC22 in your bank statement

GX + 2212 + 0S is the unique issue code assigned by MAS.

• The first two letters, “GX”, denote that this is a Savings Bond.
• The next four numbers show the year and month the bond was issued, e.g. “2212” is the bond issued in December ’22.
• The last digit (“0”) and alphabet (“S”) are for MAS’ internal reference.

F. List of Tools Mentioned on this Blog Post

30. Savings Bonds Calculator

The Savings Bonds Calculator is a handy tool that shows us how much interest we will earn regardless if we hold to maturity or perform an early redemption.

Official Link : https://eservices.mas.gov.sg/ssb/calculator

31. Savings Bonds Portal

There is an official Savings Bonds portfolio dashboard offered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and we can simply log in with Singpass to get a bird’s eye view of your Savings Bonds portfolio.

• Investment Summary – Know how much you have invested in SSB and how much more you can buy.
• Interest Payments – Keep track of upcoming interest payments.
• Compare SSBs – Compare the interest rates of different SSBs.

Official Link : https://eservices.mas.gov.sg/ssb/

32. Singapore Savings Bonds Issuance Calendar

Savings Bonds are issued according to an issuance calendar published around October / November the year before.

Official Link : https://www.mas.gov.sg/bonds-and-bills/auctions-and-issuance-calendar

33. Singapore Savings Bonds Allotment Result

Query the allotment results for every single issue of Savings Bonds via this link.

Official Link : https://eservices.mas.gov.sg/statistics/fdanet/AllotmentResult.aspx

34. Outstanding Singapore Savings Bonds

Query the amount of outstanding Savings Bonds for every single issue via this link.

Official Link : https://eservices.mas.gov.sg/statistics/fdanet/AmountOutstanding.aspx

G. Miscellaneous

35. Explain what is the Singapore Savings Bonds in one sentence?

The Singapore Savings Bonds is a ten-year bond fully backed by the Singapore Government with rising, yearly interest rate that is redeemable at any time with no penalty / capital losses.

36. How can we use the SSBs to build our portfolio?

My personal opinion is that the current interest rates (~3%) makes the SSBs a suitable option to be used as part of the bond component of a traditional 80/20 or 60/40 equities/bonds portfolio. Almost risk-free with “good” yield.

37. How does the Savings Bonds compare against SGS Bonds or T-bills?

There is a whole lot that I could have written on this but MAS already has a comprehensible comparison between these instruments.

Well, I guess that’s a wrap!

If you have taken the time to read this 3,000 words blog post, I truly hope that you have picked up at least one or two new piece of knowledge about the Singapore Savings Bonds.

Otherwise, assuming you’re totally new to SSBs before this, now you would definitely be able to join in the conversation during lunch and sound extremely intelligent!

Official MAS Links

• Singapore Savings Bonds Official Website
• Savings Bonds Statistics
• SSB Portal

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