The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has doubled the individual cap for Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB). This step will allow the investors to purchase the instruments using their Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS).

Earlier the maximum amount that an SSB individual can hold was S$100,000. Now, this cap will get doubled to S$200,000 from February 1, 2019.

The SSB program has accumulated about S$3.7 billion of investments from close to 100,000 individual investors since its inception in October 2015.

MAS reported that they received requests from the public to allow purchases of the bonds using SRS funds, which are voluntary retirement savings contributed by Singapore workers above the national CPF scheme.

"Taking into account public feedback, MAS has worked with the banks to enable SRS funds to be invested in SSB. This will expand the range of products available to SRS members and help them save and plan for retirement," MAS said.

There is an SRS contribution cap of S$15,300 per year for Singaporeans and permanent residents (PR), and S$35,700 for foreigners.

As at end-2017, almost 141,000 SRS account holders have stashed away a total of S$8.15 billion. Singaporeans make up 83 percent, followed by PRs (12 percent) and foreigners (5 percent).

About one-third or 33 percent of SRS funds is held in cash, followed by 26 percent in shares, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and ETFs or exchange-traded funds. Insurance products account for 24 percent, unit trusts (9 percent), fixed deposits (1 percent) and others (7 percent).