Editor’s note: This is general educational information about how a class of Singapore government bond is structured. It is not advice, and nothing here is a recommendation about any security. The figures come from the official data services and pages listed at the end.
Analysis: what the published ladders reveal that a single headline rate hides
The first thing the archive shows is that the ladder does not always climb. The issue coded GX24080W paid 3.19000 in each of years one through six, 3.20000 in year seven, then 3.28000, 3.31000 and 3.31000. Its average return series is nearly as flat: 3.19000 for the first seven years, then 3.20000, 3.21000 and 3.22000. GX24100H behaves similarly, holding 2.59000 for three years before easing up to 2.97000 in year ten. A step-up structure is a consequence of the shape of the underlying government yield curve at the moment of issue, not a promise built into the product, and in a flat-curve month there is very little step to it.
Compare that with GX16080S, whose coupons ran from 0.89000 in year one to 2.94000 in year ten, with the average return series crawling from 0.89000 to 2.03000. That is the steep case, and it makes the cost of an early exit visible: a holder leaving at the end of year two took the 0.98000 average return while the schedule’s tenth-year coupon was 2.94000. The gap between the coupon series and the return series is the patience premium, and it is wide when the curve is steep and close to nothing when the curve is flat.
The second observation is about rationing. For GX26090V the amount applied and the amount applied within limits differ, and the allotment matched the second number rather than the first. Applications above whatever individual limit applied were not filled. That is a design feature of an instrument aimed at individuals rather than institutions, and it means published demand figures for these bonds should be read as two numbers, not one: gross interest, and interest that was actually eligible.
What none of this data establishes is how a holder exits between windows, what fee applies on redemption, or what the individual limit is in dollars. Those sit in the programme’s own terms rather than in the issuance and interest series. What the series do establish is the part that matters for reading any month’s announcement: the headline first-year rate is the least informative number in the table, and the average return series is where the actual proposition is written down.
What the documents say
Most government bonds carry one coupon for their whole life. The Singapore Savings Bond carries ten, one for each year, fixed at issue and published before anyone applies. A new issue arrives every month with a fresh ladder, so the instrument is less a bond than a monthly reissued schedule of ten annual rates. The Monetary Authority of Singapore publishes every rung of every ladder ever set, which makes the design unusually easy to inspect.
What one issue looks like
Take the issue coded GX26100Z, ISIN SGXZ14965263. Its auction tenor is 10.0 years, it was announced on 2026-09-01, applications close on 2026-09-25, the tender is dated 2026-09-28, it is issued on 2026-10-01 and matures on 2036-10-01. Interest is paid in October and April, with the first interest date recorded as 2027-04-01.
MAS records the rates to five decimal places, and the figures here are reproduced as published. The ten coupons run 1.65000, 1.70000, 1.94000, 2.21000, 2.39000, 2.47000, 2.58000, 2.70000, 2.83000 and 3.01000. Alongside them sits a second series, the average return a holder earns by exiting at the end of each year: 1.65000, 1.67000, 1.76000, 1.87000, 1.97000, 2.05000, 2.12000, 2.19000, 2.25000 and 2.32000. The two series are the whole product. The first says what a given year pays. The second says what the holding was worth in annualised terms if it stopped there, and it rises far more slowly than the coupon series because early low years keep dragging on the average.
The preceding issue, GX26090V with ISIN SGXZ81292823, shows the same shape at slightly different levels: coupons from 1.52000 in year one to 2.82000 in year ten, average returns from 1.52000 to 2.25000, announced 2026-08-03, closing 2026-08-26, tendered 2026-08-27, issued 2026-09-01 and maturing 2036-09-01, with interest in September and March.
The monthly cycle, and the window that runs alongside it
Each issue carries an application window and, running with it, a redemption window on identical dates. For GX26090V, applications ran from the announcement on 2026-08-03 to 2026-08-26, and MAS records the redemption period for that month as opening 2026-08-03 and closing 2026-08-26. For GX26100Z the paired window is 2026-09-01 to 2026-09-25.
That pairing is the operating rhythm of the programme. Every month the same calendar governs both new money coming in and existing holdings going out, and both close a few days before the tender date. A holder is therefore never more than a month away from an exit point, and the exit is scheduled rather than negotiated.
MAS also publishes the demand side. For GX26090V the amount applied is recorded as 250.93200000 and the amount applied within limits as 232.22350000, with the amount allotted equal to the latter at 232.22350000, in the units MAS uses in its bonds and bills data service. For the very first issue, GX15100F, issued 2015-10-01 and matured 2025-10-01, applications were recorded at 418.19750000 against an issue size of 1200.00000000, with 413.16100000 allotted.
Where the instrument sits in government borrowing
The Ministry of Finance places Singapore Savings Bonds in a specific legal box. They are issued under the Government Securities (Debt Market and Investment) Act 1992, alongside SGS (Market Development), Treasury bills, Special Singapore Government Securities and Reserves Management Government Securities, and the Government cannot spend the monies raised from any of them. The proceeds are invested as part of the reserves, and MOF states that the investment returns are more than sufficient to cover the debt servicing costs.
The stated purpose is narrow. Within that group, SGS (Market Development) and T-bills exist to build a yield curve for pricing private debt, SSGS meets the investment needs of the Central Provident Fund Board, RMGS moves excess official foreign reserves to the Government, and Singapore Savings Bonds, in MOF’s phrase, provide a long-term savings option to individual investors. Only borrowing under the Significant Infrastructure Government Loan Act finances actual spending.
