The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reported of strong financial growth in foreign currency deposits on Sunday, dismissing the media reports that suggested large cash flows from Hong Kong to Singapore.
The bank added that the growth is strong owing to multiple sources- regional, domestic, and beyond.
According to the central bank, media reports focusing on the foreign currency deposits quadrupling year-round had overlooked the Asian Currency Units (ACU) by emphasizing solely on the Domestic Banking Units (DBU). Both the DBU’s and ACU’s are ledgers for separate regulatory purposes.
Notably, foreign currency deposits make up for less than 5% of the total deposits comprising both the DBUs and ACUs, as per the bank. In 2015, MAS had announced the merging of both the ledgers for convenience.
Further, Singapore’s banking system stood at S$781 billion in total foreign currency for non-bank deposits last month, over 20% higher than that in 2019, reported the bank on Sunday.
Last week media outlets like Bloomberg and Reuters suggested that the bank’s data for foreign currency deposits had increased four-fold to a record $27 billion from 2019 in April.