Treasury bills (T-bills) are short-term Singapore Government Securities (SGS) issued at a discount to their face value. Investors receive the full face value at maturity. The Government issues 6-month and 1-year T-bills.
Upcoming Auctions
View the Issuance Calendar 2024View the Issuance Calendar 2023
Overview
AAACredit Rating
Buy with Cash, SRS and CPF Funds
Find out how to buy
Tax exempt for individuals
View more statistics
Product Information
SGS T-bills are fully backed by the Singapore Government. Key Details
- For individuals, interest income earned on SGS is tax exempt.
- Non-residents without a permanent establishment in Singapore do not have to pay taxes on interest income.
Compare with other SGS products
Use T-bills to: What It Is Good For
Investors can purchase T-bills at auction. Auctions typically take place 3 business days before issuance and are announced on the SGS website 5 business days before the auction. Buying and Selling
You can apply through DBS/POSB, OCBC and UOBATMs 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.
Minimum S$1,000, and in multiples of S$1,000.
- There is no maximum amount an individual can hold, but there are limits for each auction.
- You can submit up to S$1 million in non-competitive bids at each T-bill auction.
More Products
Investor Guide
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the Top 5 T-bills FAQs. Read more on T-bills FAQs. How and Where can I check my T-bills holdings? 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. How are the T-bills allotted and how are the yields of the T-bills allotted to me determined? 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: Illustration Here is a stylised example to illustrate the allotment process for T-bills, which assumes: For this example, the allotment will be as follows: Non-competitive applications (A) Non-competitive applications (B) Non-competitive applications (C) Competitive applications at 1% Competitive applications at 2% Competitive applications at 3% Competitive applications at 4% Competitive applications at 5% 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%. How do I compute my initial investment amount for my T-bills based on the cut-off yield? 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: Where: 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. What is the maximum amount of T-bills that I can apply for as an individual investor? The sum of the competitive and non-competitive applications that may be allotted to an individual is capped at 15% of the issuance size of the T-bills auction. In addition, the maximum allotment for non-competitive applications per individual is S$1 million per T-bills auction. How do I read the T-bills auction results? In a uniform-price auction, successful non-competitive and competitive applications will be allotted the T-bills at the Cut-off Yield and Cut-off Price. The Cut-off Yield refers to the highest accepted yield of successful competitive applications, and the Cut-off Price refers to the price corresponding to the Cut-off Yield.See question on "How do I compute my initial investment amount for my T-bills based on the cut-off yield?"for the formula to compute the cut-off price. 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.
Total Issuance Size of T-bills S$20,000 Total Non-competitive Applications Received S$8,000 Total Competitive Applications Received S$18,000
Competitive or
Non-competitiveApplication amount Allotment amount Cumulative allotment amount Remarks S$1,000 S$1,000
(fully allotted)S$1,000 S$3,000 S$3,000
(fully allotted)S$4,000 S$4,000 S$4,000
(fully allotted)S$8,000 Total of
Non-competitive applicationsS$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. 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. 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. 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. S$5,000 S$1,000
(pro-rated allotment)S$20,000
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 applicationsS$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%.
D = M/365 X R
P = S$100 – D
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
Contact Us
Can't find the information you're looking for? Contact uswith your question.