The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Thursday that the S$50,000 issue limit for Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) will be removed from Mar 1 this year.
The authority said in a press release that the removal of the issue limit will simplify the SSB programme, allowing investors to apply for a larger amount of a particular SSB issue. MAS also added that the individual limit will remain at S$100,000.
At present, investors in SSB are subject to two limits – the issue limit, which limits the maximum amount of each issue that an individual can hold at S$50,000, and the individual limit, which limits each individual's total SSB holdings at S$100,000.
"The SSB allocation mechanism will continue to ensure that the bond is distributed as evenly as possible amongst investors," MAS said. It also added that smaller applications would be filled first in the event of an oversubscription.
According to MAS, about S$362 million of SSB have been issued so far this year. The authority said that it would offer about S$2 billion of SSB in 2018 and continue to "monitor the subscription levels closely" in determining the monthly issue size.
More than S$1.9 billion of SSB has been issued to about 57,000 investors since the launch of the SSB programme in October 2015.
The media release stated that more than half of the applications were for amounts less than S$10,000. It also said that more than half of SSB investors are aged 41 and above.
On Thursday, the authority will announce the details of the next SSB issue at 4.30 pm. Applications for the upcoming issue will be open from 6 pm on Thursday to 9 pm on Mar 26 this year.
