Marking further progress in the city-state’s efforts to develop as a key Asia-Pacific gold trading hub, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Tuesday (Nov 10) announced two fresh initiatives.
It launched a central bank gold vaulting service and announced an enhanced Goods and Services (GST) framework for wholesale investment precious metal (IPM) gold market activities with the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
Explaining the initiatives, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Gan Kim Yong said “Singapore does not aim to replace other gold centres and gold vaulting services. I think we are an additional option that is offered to the central banks. With the growing demand for gold as a reserve asset, central banks are also looking for alternatives, and looking for more options to strengthen their resilience in terms of their gold reserves.”
“There are interests that have been expressed to us, and because these are confidential, I won’t be able to share too many details on which particular central bank has approached us,” he added.
DPM Gan also shared that Singapore’s gold clearing system will be ready by end–2026, with live trading and liquidity building up from the first quarter next year (2027).
The Singapore Exchange (SGC) and six founding clearing banks – DBS, Deutsche Bank, ICBC Standard Bank, J.P. Morgan, OCBC, and UOB – have been working closely together to complete preparations for the Over–the–Counter (OTC) gold clearing system by end–2026, following a Memorandum of Understanding signed in June.
London’s OTC market, the US futures market and the Shanghai Gold Exchange reportedly make up more than 90 per cent of global gold-trading volumes. They are complemented by smaller secondary OTC and exchange-traded market centres around the world, which include Dubai, India, and Japan.
In a related move, SGX’s physically deliverable Gold Kilobar Futures is targeted for launch in the second quarter of 2027, MAS said in a statement.
Details on the new initiatives
Meanwhile, the central bank gold vaulting service will provide foreign central banks, international financial institutions and sovereign entities with a secure option to hold gold reserves in Singapore, MAS said.
It will also offer gold custody accounts to select Singapore-based bullion banks with expertise and experience in providing gold-related services and trading liquidity to these institutions. Gold will be stored in Singapore’s national currency vault – which can store up to 500 tonnes – with room to expand as demand grows.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong is reportedly working to increase its total gold storage capacity by more than 10 times to over 2,000 tonnes by 2030.
Additionally, MAS and MOF will extend the existing Goods and Services Tax (GST) waiver on investment precious metal (IPM) gold market activities to specified wholesale–related services between institutional participants covered by the framework, such as vaulting, refining/recasting, assaying, and broking.
This will ensure that the GST treatment better reflects and supports the growth of the wholesale Loco Singapore gold market activities where the gold is not for domestic consumption, MAS explained. The framework is expected to take effect from April 2027, and further details will be announced at Budget 2027.
Loco Singapore is a gold trading and settlement ecosystem where trades are priced, cleared and settled against gold physically vaulted in the city-state.
