Latest SSB allotment of up to S$69k per person. Here’s why demand is rising again.

What happened?

With all the focus on fixed deposit accounts and T-bills, it would appear that there are less investors looking at the Singapore Savings Bond (SSB) these days. 

However, the April issuance of the SSBs (GX23040S) saw significantly higher applications compared to the previous month.

As a result, applicants who applied for S$68,500 or lower were fully allotted, subject to individual allotment limits.

Applicants who applied for S$68,500 or higher were allotted either S$68,500 or S$69,000. 

About 83.42% of these applicants were selected at random and allotted S$69,000.

What we learnt from the latest SSB allotment

#1 – Investor demand for SSB increased

There was S$758 million of applications for the April issuance of the Singapore Savings Bonds. 

This was close to three times the amount of applications for the March issuance, which totaled S$261 million.

However, the total amount of applications was still lower than the S$910 million of applications for the January issuance, and significantly below the recent peak of S$2.4 billion in August 2022. 

The total applications of S$758 million is also a fraction of the total amount of T-bill applications of S$12.7 billion in the auction on 16 March. 

As the total amount of applications exceeded the issue size of S$700 million, there was a maximum allotment of S$69,000 for the latest SSB.

This is the first time the allotment limit was hit in recent months, as the amount of applications came in below the issue size in the previous two auctions. 

You might have noticed that the total amount of applications was lower than the January issuance. However, the maximum allotment was significantly lower than in the January issuance.

This is because the issuance size of the latest SSB is at S$700 million, below the issuance size in January of S$900 million. 

This led to a lower amount of maximum allotment in the latest SSB issuance. 

#2 – Higher interest rates led to increased demand for SSBs

The higher subscriptions for the April issuance compared to the previous issuance might be due to an increase in interest rate.

You will receive an average interest rate of 3.15% per annum for holding the April SSB for 10 years. This is higher compared to last month’s issuance average of 2.90% per annum.

You will receive an interest rate of 3.01% for holding the April SSB for one year. This is also higher compared to first year interest rate of 2.76% in last month’s issuance.

Clearly, the increase in interest rate above 3% level has drawn more investors to the Singapore Savings Bonds once again.

What would Beansprout do? 

We shared earlier that Singapore Savings Bonds offer a simple way to lock in long-term interest rates while offering flexibility of redeeming with no penalty. 

The increase in interest rate in the latest issuance might have drawn more investors to park their spare cash in SSBs.

In addition, SSBs might be seen by some investors to be a safe haven with uncertainty in the global financial sector.

On the other hand, we have seen bond yields coming down in the previous T-bill auction. Some banks have also been cutting interest rates on their fixed deposit accounts. 

If you missed out on this issuance of Singapore Savings Bonds, the next SSB will open for applications from 3^rd April! 

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