MAS Opens 500-Tonne Gold Vault to Foreign Central Banks
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The Monetary Authority of Singapore launched a gold vaulting service on Nov 10, opening its national currency vault to foreign central banks, international financial institutions and sovereign entities.
The state facility offers 500 tonnes of storage capacity with scope for expansion as demand grows, adding institutional sovereign space to the Republic’s financial infrastructure.
This public capacity will complement more than 2,000 tonnes of private commercial vaulting currently operating across Singapore for bullion banks, institutional investors and high-net-worth clients.
Custody for Sovereign Holders
Foreign central banks, international financial institutions and sovereign entities can now store official gold reserves inside the national currency vault. MAS will offer gold custody accounts to selected Singapore-based bullion banks that provide liquidity and precious metals services to sovereign customers. The storage site has room to add capacity beyond its initial 500-tonne limit as deposits increase.
Deputy Prime Minister and MAS chairman Gan Kim Yong confirmed that several foreign central banks have opened confidential discussions to use the facility. Official vaulting infrastructure has remained concentrated in Western Europe and North America, leaving sovereign managers with few state-backed choices in Asian trading hours.
Exchange Clearing and Bank Participants
Physical custody is only half the framework. MAS completed industry testing for an over-the-counter gold clearing system operated by the Singapore Exchange, with final operating rules scheduled for release shortly.
Six commercial lenders will serve as clearing members: DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, ICBC Standard Bank, JPMorgan, OCBC Bank and UOB. Live settlement operations across the six banks will begin in the first quarter of 2027, clearing wholesale trades for both 400-ounce institutional bars and 1-kilogram bars favored in Asian retail and wealth channels.
“SGX plans to introduce a physically deliverable Gold Kilobar Futures contract in the second quarter of 2027 to anchor pricing between Asian daylight hours and Western paper markets.”
SGX plans to introduce a physically deliverable Gold Kilobar Futures contract in the second quarter of 2027 to anchor pricing between Asian daylight hours and Western paper markets.
Tax Exemptions for Wholesale Processing
Commercial viability for physical trading hinges on transaction costs. MAS and the Ministry of Finance plan an enhanced goods and services tax exemption scheduled to take effect in April 2027.
The reform removes GST charges on business-to-business services between institutional participants, covering vaulting, refining, assaying, recasting and broking for gold not destined for domestic retail consumption. Specific statutory language for the tax relief will appear in the 2027 national budget.
Building Asian Settlement Liquidity
Singapore is tackling the structural problem that has capped Asian bullion volumes for decades: regional buyers purchase physical bars locally but clear, hedge and finance them against London and New York balance sheets. By combining sovereign-grade custody with central counterparty clearing through SGX, the city-state aims to keep metal and risk in the same time zone.
Regional rivalry with Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai is intensifying as non-Western central banks reallocate reserve assets away from dollar holdings. Hong Kong continues to push its own physical warehouse and market links with mainland China, yet Gan argued that growing reserve diversification gives room for parallel hubs. The operational test rests on whether global bullion desks commit primary trading capital to Singapore rather than treating it merely as secondary overflow storage.
The Timeline to Full Trading
The state-backed facility follows an industry consultation started in March, when MAS convened a working group that brought together global banks, SGX, the World Gold Council, trading houses StoneX APAC and YLG Bullion Singapore, and refiner Metalor Technologies Singapore. Gan first flagged the vault plan publicly in June.
System integration across the six clearing banks runs through the end of 2026, ahead of the live launch of SGX over-the-counter clearing in the first quarter of 2027.