The Monetary Authority of Singapore or (MAS), is the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

and financial regulatory authority of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general, as well as currency issuance and manages the

foreign-exchange reserves Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold and silver held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, ...

. It was established in 1971 to act as the

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

er to and as a financial agent of the

Government of Singapore The government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore, Constitution of the Republic of Singapore to consist of the President of Singapore, President and the Executive. Executive authority of Singapore is vested in the Presi ...

. The body is duly accountable to the Parliament of Singapore through the Minister-in-charge, who is also the Incumbent Chairman of the central bank. In May 2025 the fund had

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

629 billion in

assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...

History

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was founded in on with authority to regulate and supervise banking and finance in Singapore. It coexisted with the

Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore The Monetary Authority of Singapore or (MAS), is the central bank and Financial regulation, financial regulatory authority of Singapore. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial s ...

established in 1967 to issue the city-state's currency, with which it eventually merged in 2002. Prior its establishment, its roles were performed by various government departments and agencies. The acronym MAS resembles ''mas'', the word for 'gold' in Malay, Singapore's

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

—although the acronym is pronounced with each of its initial letters. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, MAS brought forward its bi-annual meeting from some time in April to 30 March. The MAS decided to ease the

Singapore dollar The Singapore dollar (currency sign, sign: S$; ISO 4217, code: SGD) is the official currency of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore. It is divided into 100 cent (currency), cents (, , ). It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or ...

's appreciation rate to zero percent, as well as adjust the policy band downwards, the first such move since the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. This marks the first time the MAS had taken these two measures together. Unlike many central banks around the world, the MAS is not

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

from the

Singapore Government The government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore to consist of the President and the Executive. Executive authority of Singapore is vested in the President but exercised on the advice of the Cabinet le ...

—the MAS is under the purview of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO); chairmen of the MAS were either former or incumbent Minister for Finance. Some includes the former

Prime Ministers A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but rat ...

or the current Deputy Prime Ministers.

List of chairmen

Policy

Since 1981, monetary policy in Singapore is mainly conducted through the management of the

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

(rather than

inflation targeting In macroeconomics, inflation targeting is a monetary policy where a central bank follows an explicit target for the inflation rate for the medium-term and announces this inflation target to the public. The assumption is that the best that moneta ...

) of the

, in order to promote price stability as a basis for sustainable economic growth. The exchange rate is an intermediate target of monetary policy in the context of the small and open Singapore economy (where gross

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

s and

import An importer is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. Import is part of the International Trade which involves buying and receivin ...

s of goods and services are more than 300 percent of

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...

and almost 40 cents of every Singapore dollar spent domestically is on imports), the exchange rate represents a significantly stronger influence on

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

than the

interest rate An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, ...

. As a result, the nominal exchange rate, directly and indirectly, affects a wide range of prices in the Singapore economy, such as import and export prices, wages and rentals, consumer prices and output prices. MAS controls monetary policy through direct interventions in the

foreign exchange market The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. By trading volume, ...

s and bears a stable and predictable relationship with the

price stability Price stability is a goal of monetary and fiscal policy aiming to support sustainable rates of economic activity. Policy is set to maintain a very low rate of inflation or deflation. For example, the European Central Bank (ECB) describes price s ...

as the final target of policy, over the medium-term. The Singapore dollar (SGD) is managed against a

basket of currencies A currency basket is a portfolio of selected currencies with different weightings. A currency basket is commonly used by investors to minimize the risk of currency fluctuations and also governments when setting the market value of a country's ...

of Singapore's major trading partners and competitors; the various currencies are assigned weights in accordance with the importance of the country to Singapore's international trading relations (as shown below) and the composition of the basket is revised periodically to take into account any changes in trade patterns. MAS operates a

managed float regime A managed float regime, also known as a dirty float, is a type of exchange rate regime where a currency's value is allowed to fluctuate in response to foreign-exchange market mechanisms (i.e., supply and demand), but the central bank or monetary ...

for the Singapore dollar. The tradeweighted exchange rate, which is known as the 'Singapore dollar Nominal Effective Exchange Rate' (S$NEER) is allowed to fluctuate within a policy band; the level and direction of which is announced semi-annually (typically every six months) to the market. The policy band provides a mechanism to accommodate short-term fluctuations in the foreign exchange markets and allows flexibility in managing the exchange rate. The exchange rate policy band is periodically reviewed by MAS to ensure that the policy band remains consistent with underlying fundamentals of the economy; the path of the exchange rate is continually assessed every 6 months in order to prevent a misalignment in the currency value. A Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) is released by MAS after each review, which provides information on the recent movements of the exchange rate and explaining the

forward guidance Forward guidance is a tool used by a central bank to exercise its power in monetary policy in order to influence, with their own forecasts, market expectations of future levels of interest rates. Communication about the likely future course of mon ...

of future exchange rate policy. MAS would also release an accompanying report, the Macroeconomic Review (MR), which provides detailed information on the assessment of

macroeconomic Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output/ GDP ...

developments and trends in the Singapore economy; the MR is aimed to enhance market and public understanding of the monetary policy stance. As the MAS utilises the choice of the exchange rate as the intermediate target of monetary policy, this implies that MAS does not have any control over domestic interest rates (and

money supply In macroeconomics, money supply (or money stock) refers to the total volume of money held by the public at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money", but standard measures usually include currency in circulation (i ...

), due to the commonly accepted concept in

international economics International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns an ...

known as the policy trilemma. In the context of free capital movements, interest rates in Singapore are largely determined by foreign interest rates and investor expectations of the future movements in the Singapore dollar. Singapore domestic interest rates have typically been below U.S. Fed funds interest rates and reflect market expectations of a trend appreciation of the Singapore dollar over time. The exchange rate has emerged as an effective anti-inflation tool for the Singapore economy. In the twenty years since the exchange rate framework was in place, domestic inflation was relatively low, averaging 1.9% per annum from 1981 to 2010. As a result of the long record of low inflation, expectations of price stability in Singapore have become more entrenched over the years. The exchange rate system has also functioned to mitigate the adverse effects of short-term volatility on the real economy, while at the same time ensuring that the exchange rate remains aligned with economic conditions and fundamentals. The success of the exchange rate system is heavily dependent on the economic fundamentals of Singapore, such as prudent

fiscal policy In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection ( taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variab ...

, flexible product and factor markets, sound

financial system A financial system is a system that allows the exchange of funds between financial market participants such as lenders, investors, and borrowers. Financial systems operate at national and global levels. Financial institutions consist of comple ...

, and robust domestic

corporate sector In economics, the business sector or corporate sector - sometimes popularly called simply "business" - is "the part of the economy made up by companies". It is a subset of the domestic economy, excluding the economic activities of general gover ...

Debt

Singapore's debts are under the responsibility of MAS. As of 2022, the Singapore Government debt exceeds the country's GDP at about 150%. However, these are not net debts, but gross external debts, which can be traced to the debt liabilities in Singapore's banking sector—a reflection of the country's stature as a major global financial hub. In essence, Singapore borrows to invest, not to spend. Therefore, unlike other countries, Singapore is a net creditor with no debt to anyone, and has a net debt-to-GDP ratio of 0%, maintained for almost three decades since 1995. Accordingly, Singapore is the only country in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

with a AAA sovereign credit rating from all major rating agencies. For multiple years, Singapore emerged as the top country in the world with the least-risky credit rating under the Euromoney Country Risk (ECR) rankings, being one of the safest investment destinations. The country was also ranked as the freest economy in the world on the ''

Index of Economic Freedom The ''Index of Economic Freedom'' is an annual index and ranking created in 1995 by The Heritage Foundation and ''The Wall Street Journal'' to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. The creators of the index assert that ...

'' rankings.

Major trading partners of Singapore

Issuing banknotes and coins

Following its merger with the Board of Commissioners of Currency on 1 October 2002, the MAS assumed the function of currency issuance. MAS has the exclusive right to issue banknotes and coins in Singapore. Their dimensions, designs and denominations are determined by the

Monetary Policy Committee The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a committee of the Bank of England, which meets for three and a half days, eight times a year, to decide the official interest rate in the United Kingdom (the Bank of England Base Rate). It is also respo ...

with Government approval. The banknotes and coins issued have the status of legal tender within the country for all transactions, both public and private, without limitation. In December 2020, MAS approved digital bank licenses for 4 tech giants, Grab–

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country. Overview T ...

consortium,

Ant Group Ant Group ( zh, s=蚂蚁集团, p=Mǎyǐ jítuán, t=), formerly known as Ant Financial, is an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group. The group owns the world's largest mobile (digital) payment platform Alipay, which serves ...

, Sea Group, and Greenland Financial consortium. Grab-Singtel and Sea Group were awarded digital full banking licenses, while Ant Group and Greenland Financial were awarded digital wholesale banking licenses. In May 2021, the ability to transfer money between Singapore's PayNow and Thailand's PromptPay was announced.

Strategic initiatives

ASEAN Financial Innovation Network

ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) is a non-profit organisation, established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), ASEAN Bankers Association (ABA), and the

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

(IFC), a member of the

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group ...

in 2018. AFIN launched the Application Programming Interface Exchange (APIX), a global fintech marketplace and regulatory sandbox in 2018.

Asian Institute of Digital Finance

The Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF) is a research institute to enhance education, research and entrepreneurship in digital finance. AIDF is a collaboration between the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the National Research Foundation and the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

(NUS) and was established in 2021.

Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN)

Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) is created by Monetary Authority of Singapore to serve expanding Singapore's fintech ecosystem globally.

Ravi Menon Chalappurathu Raveendranatha Menon (1950 – 24 November 2007), popularly known as Ravi Menon, was a veteran Indian film actor who worked in Malayalam cinema. He was born in Sreekrishnapuram, Palakkad in 1950. He graduated from the Film and T ...

, former managing director of the MAS is appointed as the chairman of GFTN. GFTN replaces and builds upon Elevandi, the non-profit organisation created by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in August 2021 to foster an active and open dialogue between the public and private sectors, to advance

FinTech Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...

further in the global

digital economy The digital economy is a portmanteau of digital computing and economy, and is an umbrella term that describes how traditional Brick and mortar, brick-and-mortar economic activities (production, distribution, trade) are being transformed by the ...

. GFTN will continue to operate as a not-for-profit, and will work with the MAS on industry and policy dialogues in the area of payments, asset tokenization, AI and

quantum In physics, a quantum (: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This me ...

Project Nexus

The

Bank for International Settlements The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution which is owned by member central banks. Its primary goal is to foster international monetary and financial cooperation while serving as a bank for central bank ...

signed an agreement with

Central Bank of Malaysia The Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM; ; Jawi: ) is the Malaysian central bank. Established on 26 January 1959 as the Central Bank of Malaya (''Bank Negara Tanah Melayu''), its main purpose is to issue currency, act as the banker and advisor to the ...

Bank of Thailand The Bank of Thailand (BOT; Abbreviation, abbr. ธปท.; , ) is the central bank of Thailand. History The Bank of Thailand (BOT) was first set up as the Thai National Banking Bureau. The Bank of Thailand Act was promulgated on 28 April 1942 ...

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (; commonly abbreviated as BSP in both Filipino and English) is the central bank of the Philippines. It was established on January 3, 1949, and then re-established on July 3, 1993 pursuant to the provision of Re ...

, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the

Reserve Bank of India Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...

on 30 June 2024 as founding member of Project Nexus, a multilateral international initiative to enable retail cross-border payments.

Bank Indonesia Bank Indonesia (BI) is the central bank of the Republic of Indonesia. It replaced in 1953 the Bank of Java (, DJB), which had been created in 1828 to serve the financial needs of the Dutch East Indies. History Bank of Java King William ...

involved as a special observer. The platform, which is expected to go live by 2026, will interlink domestic fast payment systems of the member countries.

Singapore FinTech Festival

Singapore FinTech Festival Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) is the largest FinTech festival in the world and a knowledge platform for the global FinTech community. SFF is organized annually by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Global Finance & Technology Network and C ...

(SFF) annually organised by MAS, Elevandi in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore in collaboration with Constellar, to connect the various FinTech communities around the world to one another.

Financial institution cybersecurity

On 18 September 2024, in a joint statement with the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS), MAS announced that banks in Singapore will progressively require customers to use SingPass face verification to verify their identities when setting up their digital tokens, so as to better protect consumers from online scams.

Financing Asia's Transition Partnership

Financing Asia's Transition Partnership (FAST-P), was implemented by MAS as a protocol designed to unite both private-public partnerships in the sphere of de-carbonization and climate change resilience, first unveiled to the public at COP28. At the World Climate Action Summit, Singapore's Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security with backing from MAS first unveiled the project during opening remarks. Since then, in a demonstration of shared goals for the region, Australia's Prime Minister Albanese allocated the first of the nation's $2 billion SEAIFF (Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility) investment toward the initiative in December 2024. Primary goals for FAST-P remain to promote the de-risking of perceived unstable

green infrastructure Green infrastructure or blue-green infrastructure refers to a network that provides the “ingredients” for solving urban and climatic challenges by building with nature.Hiltrud Pötz & Pierre Bleuze (2011). Urban green-blue grids for sustain ...

ventures and to tangibly bolster previously marginally bankable projects for driving sustainable innovation, with a fund target of $5 billion USD. Key partners in debt financing include Pentagreen Capital and its affiliates

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

Temasek Temasek ( or , also spelt Temasik or Tumasik) is an early recorded name of a settlement on the site of modern Singapore. The name appears in early Malay and Javanese literature, and it is also recorded in Yuan and Ming Chinese documents ...

, with additional endorsements by member entities' Statements of Intent and following memorandums of understanding. Member organizations range from the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

(ADB) and

(IFC) to the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) target the sectors of renewable infrastructure in energy,

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...

s, and water/waste management in a three-pronged approach to green investments,

energy transition An energy transition (or energy system transformation) is a major structural change to energy supply and consumption in an energy system. Currently, a transition to sustainable energy is underway to limit climate change. Most of the sustainab ...

, and clean technologies.

References

External links

Monetary Authority of Singapore
{{Authority control

Statutory boards of the Singapore Government 1971 establishments in Singapore Government agencies established in 1971 Singaporean companies established in 1971 Banks established in 1971 Regulation in Singapore Financial regulatory authorities of Singapore