Singapore dollar
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Singapore dollar

The Singapore dollar (sign: S$; code: SGD) is the official currency of the Republic of Singapore. It is divided into 100 cents (Malay: sen, Chinese: ; pinyin: fēn, Tamil: காசு, romanized: kācu). It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issues the banknotes and coins of the Singapore dollar.

As of 2024, the Singapore dollar is the 13th most traded currency in the world. Apart from its use in Singapore, the Singapore dollar is also accepted as customary tender in Brunei according to the Currency Interchangeability Agreement between the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam (Monetary Authority of Brunei Darussalam). Likewise, the Brunei dollar is also customarily accepted in Singapore.

The Spanish-American silver dollar brought over by the Manila galleons was in wide circulation in Asia and the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries. From 1845 to 1945 the Straits Settlements (of which Singapore used to be part) issued its local equivalent, the Straits dollar. This was replaced by the Malayan dollar, and, from 1953, the Malaya and British Borneo dollar, which were issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya and British Borneo.

Singapore continued to use the common currency upon joining Malaysia in 1963 and after Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965, but the formal monetary union between Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei stopped in 1967, and Singapore established the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore (BCCS), on 7 April 1967 and issued its first coins and notes. Nevertheless, the Singapore dollar was exchangeable at par with the Malaysian ringgit until 8 May 1973 under the Interchangeability Agreement, and interchangeability with the Brunei dollar is still maintained.

Initially, the Singapore dollar was pegged to the pound sterling at a rate of two shillings and four pence to the dollar, or £1 = S$60/7 or S$8.57; in turn, £1 = US$2.80 from 1949 to 1967 so that US$1 = S$3.06. This peg to sterling was broken in 1967 when the pound was devalued to US$2.40 but the peg to the U.S. dollar of US$1 = S$3.06 was retained. This peg remained for a short time after the Nixon Shock of the early 1970s. As Singapore's economy grew and its trade links diversified to many other countries and regions, Singapore moved towards pegging its currency against a fixed and undisclosed trade-weighted basket of currencies from 1973 to 1985.

Before 1970, the various monetary functions associated with a central bank were performed by several government departments and agencies. As Singapore progressed, the demands of an increasingly complex banking and monetary environment necessitated streamlining the functions to facilitate the development of a more dynamic and coherent policy on monetary matters. Therefore, the Parliament of Singapore passed the Monetary Authority of Singapore Act in 1970, leading to the formation of MAS on 1 January 1971. The MAS Act gave the MAS the authority to regulate all elements of monetary, banking, and financial aspects of Singapore.

From 1985 onwards, Singapore adopted a more market-oriented exchange regime, classified as a Monitoring Band, in which the Singapore dollar is allowed to float (within an undisclosed bandwidth of a central parity) but closely monitored by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) against a concealed basket of currencies of Singapore's major trading partners and competitors. This, in theory, allows the Singaporean government to have more control over imported inflation and to ensure that Singapore's exports remain competitive.

On 1 October 2002, the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore (BCCS) merged with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which took over the responsibility of banknote issuance.

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