With banks competing with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s six-month T-bills for deposits, DBS Bank has fired the next salvo on the interest rate front.
In a press release on Nov 1, DBS announced it is moving up interest rates on two high-yield interest savings accounts: DBS Multiplier and POSB Save As You Earn (POSB SAYE) Account. “This marks the second round of interest rates adjustments {this year} made for the bank’s competitive bank-and-earn programme DBS Multiplier, in which interest rates will be increased to up to 4.1% per annum (p.a.), from 3.5% p.a currently. At the same time, POSB SAYE customers can earn an additional 3.5% p.a. interest on their regular monthly savings,” DBS says in its announcement.
Half of the existing DBS Multiplier and POSB SAYE account holders will immediately benefit from these changes, which kick in on Nov 1. The bank will also raise the DBS Multiplier balance cap to $100,000 so that customers can earn even higher interest on their balances. All in, a DBS Multiplier account holder will stand to earn up to 35 times in interest compared to a DBS non-Multiplier customer, according to the DBS announcement.
The latest revisions are in addition to the suite of solutions that the bank rolled out in August 2022 to help customers navigate inflation and build financial resilience — the first bank in Singapore to do so, DBS says. These measures, which include increasing DBS Multiplier interest rates, rewarding cash rebates on DBS/POSB credit cards to stretch customers’ dollar on everyday spend, as well as offering unique home financing and savings solutions, have positively impacted customers’ finances over the past two months, adds DBS.
Separately, to help tide its customers over inflation, the bank has rolled out a wide range of inflation relief solutions over the past three months. These include offering cash rebates and hawker meal cashbacks, as well as reducing home loan interest expenses for eligible borrowers who earn less than SGD2,500 a month, when they sign up for the exclusive POSB HDB home loan. Now at an interest rate of 2.6% p.a., the new POSB HDB home loan offering is similar to the current HDB concessionary home loan rate.
On Oct 31, OCBC Bank announced a headline 4.65% rate — subject to conditions — for its flagship OCBC 360 account.
Some market watchers, including bank treasury executives and local brokers, reckon that MAS's six-month T-bills, which are risk-free, are the best short-term fix for retail investors to earn higher rates as they await the US Federal Reserve's rate hike cycle to peak.
