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T-bills Auction Data Table
Product Information
Issuer | Government of Singapore |
Sovereign credit rating | AAA |
Tenor | 6 months or 1 year |
Currency | SGD |
Interest rate | No coupon. Issued at a discount to the face value |
Interest payments | Upon maturity, investors receive the face value |
Tax | There is no capital gains tax in Singapore.
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Read step-by-step investor guide to investing in Singapore Government Securities (SGS) bonds, T-bills, Cash Management Treasury Bills, MAS Bills, and MAS FRN.
- Diversify your investment portfolio.
- Receive a fixed interest payment at maturity.
- Invest in a safe, short-term investment option.
You can apply through DBS/POSB, OCBC and UOB ATMs or internet banking. Find out how individuals can buy SGS bonds.
Frequency of Issuance | Quarterly, according to the issuance calendar. |
Method of sale | Uniform price auction - investors can submit competitive or non-competitive bids. |
Bid format | In yield terms, up to 2 decimal places. |
Investment amount |
Minimum S$1,000, and in multiples of S$1,000.
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Typical issue size | S$2 billion to S$4 billion. |
Who can buy | All institutions and individuals, including non-residents. Individuals need to be 18 years and above. |
Buy with SRS and CPF | Yes |
Settlement | T+3 at auction; T+1 in the secondary market. |
Custody | At the Central Depository . |
Secondary market trading | At DBS, OCBC and UOB main branches. View branch and contact details. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the Top 5 T-bills FAQs. Read more on T-bills FAQs .
For individual investors, if your application for the T-bills was successful, the T-bills holding will be reflected in your respective accounts after the issuance date.
- For cash application: You can check your CDP notification statement via CDP Internet after 6pm on issuance date. If you have opted for paper statements from CDP, the statements are typically mailed to investors from the 4th business day of each month. Please note that every 10 units on the CDP statement represents S$1,000 in face value of your T-bills holdings. For questions on your CDP account or CDP statement, please contact CDP at 6535 7511.
- For SRS application: You can check the statements from your SRS Operator (DBS/POSB, OCBC and UOB are SRS operators).
- For CPFIS-OA application: You can check the CPFIS statement sent by your agent bank (DBS/POSB, OCBC and UOB are CPFIS agent banks).
- For CPFIS-SA application: You can check your CPF statement.
T-bills are issued via a uniform-price auction. This means that all successful applications, whether non-competitive or competitive, will be allotted the T-bills at a uniform yield, which is the cut-off yield. The cut-off yield of the T-bills auction is the highest accepted yield of successful competitive applications submitted at the auction.
In a T-bills auction, allotment starts with the non-competitive applications, followed by the competitive applications:
- Non-competitive applications are allotted first, up to 40% of the total issuance amount. If the total amount of non-competitive applications exceeds 40%, the T-bills will be allotted to non-competitive applications on a pro-rated basis. However, to ensure that the final allotments are in denominations of S$1,000, adjustments will be made by the system on a randomised basis.
- The rest of the issuance amount will be awarded to competitive applications, starting from the lowest to the highest yields submitted.
Illustration
Here is a stylised example to illustrate the allotment process for T-bills, which assumes:
Total Issuance Size of T-bills | S$20,000 |
Total Non-competitive Applications Received | S$8,000 |
Total Competitive Applications Received | S$18,000 |
For this example, the allotment will be as follows:
- The non-competitive applications will be allotted first. As the non-competitive applications of S$8,000 is within 40% of the issuance size (i.e. S$8,000), the non-competitive applications will be fully allotted. This means that everyone who submitted a non-competitive application will be allotted the amount that they had bid for, capped at S$1 million per T-bills auction.
- The competitive applications will be allotted next based on the remaining auction amount of S$12,000. The applications will be allotted starting with the lowest yield, and move to the next lowest yield and so on until the remaining auction amount of S$12,000 is reached.
Competitive or Non-competitive |
Application amount | Allotment amount | Cumulative allotment amount | Remarks |
Non-competitive applications (A) |
S$1,000 | S$1,000 (fully allotted) |
S$1,000 | |
Non-competitive applications (B) |
S$3,000 | S$3,000 (fully allotted) |
S$4,000 | |
Non-competitive applications (C) |
S$4,000 | S$4,000 (fully allotted) |
S$8,000 | |
Total of Non-competitive applications |
S$8,000 | S$8,000 (100% of non-competitive applications allotted) |
S$8,000 | In this example, the non-competitive applications were 100% allotted as the total amount of non-competitive applications was within 40% of the total issuance amount. |
Competitive applications at 1% |
S$3,000 | S$3,000 (fully allotted) |
S$11,000 | All applications at this yield were fully allotted as it is below the cut-off yield. |
Competitive applications at 2% |
S$4,000 | S$4,000 (fully allotted) |
S$15,000 | All applications at this yield were fully allotted as it is below the cut-off yield. |
Competitive applications at 3% |
S$4,000 | S$4,000 (fully allotted) |
S$19,000 | All applications at this yield were fully allotted as it is below the cut-off yield. |
Competitive applications at 4% |
S$5,000 | S$1,000 (pro-rated allotment) |
S$20,000 |
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Competitive applications at 5% |
S$2,000 | - | - | Applications at this yield were not allotted as the total issuance size has been met. |
Total of Competitive applications | S$18,000 | S$12,000 | S$20,000 | 4% becomes the cut-off yield for this auction. |
In summary | ||||
Total of both Non-competitive and Competitive applications |
S$26,000 (Non-competitive S$8,000, Competitive S$18,000) |
S$20,000 (Non-competitive S$8,000, Competitive S$12,000) |
S$20,000 | Cut-off yield = 4%. |
In this example, the cut-off yield is 4%. All allotted applications, non-competitive and competitive, will receive the same cut-off yield of 4%.
T-bills are issued at a discount to the face value.
The cut-off yield at an auction determines the cut-off price of the T-bills, based on the formula below:
D = M/365 X R
P = S$100 – D
Where:
D = full discount per S$100 face value
M = days to maturity
R = annual rate of discount (yield), expressed as %
P = dollar price per S$100 face value
For example, if the cut-off yield for a 6-month T-bills with 182 days to maturity is 4.00%, this translates to a cut-off price of S$98.005 (rounded to 3 decimal places) per S$100 in face value. This means that for every S$1,000 of T-bills that was allotted to you, your initial investment amount would be S$980.05.
In addition, the non-competitive application per individual is capped at S$1 million per T-bills auction. Please note that final allotment could be less than S$1 million per T-bills auction, if the total amount of non-competitive applications exceeds 40%, which will result in the T-bills being allotted to non-competitive applications on a pro-rated basis.
If you have placed a non-competitive application, you may refer to the % of Non-Competitive Applications Allotted for the percentage of allotment given to non-competitive applications for the auction. If you have placed a competitive application at the Cut-off Yield, you may refer to the % of Competitive Applications at Cut-off Allotted for the percentage of allotment given to applicants who bid exactly at the cut-off yield for the auction.
Do note that in the event of over-subscription, individual allotments will be adjusted on a randomised basis to ensure that allotments are in denomination of S$1,000.
For more information on the competitive bidding behaviour in an auction, you may also refer to the Median Yield and Average Yield. The Median Yield refers to the yield corresponding to the median of successful competitive applications, while the Average Yield refers to the sum product of the amount of successful competitive applications and the respective application yields, divided by the total amount of successful competitive applications. The results for each T-bills issue may differ depending on investors’ bidding behaviour.