Funds

Fullerton SGD Cash Fund – The king’s throne for your cash

As we see more investment opportunities surfacing, it becomes important for investors to maintain liquidity in their cash holdings. Here is a cash fund to consider looking into.

  • |
  • Published on 05 Aug 2023

Fullerton SGD Cash Fund – The king’s throne for your cash | Open a FREE FSMOne account and manage all your investments conveniently in ONE place
Photo by Peter on Unsplash

  • The fund has a quick settlement time at T+1 for the redemption of units to ensure investors have the liquidity to capture investment opportunities.
  • The multi-pronged approach towards seeking alpha allows efficient capturing of yields where available.
  • The investments into bank deposits and MAS Bills allow for the fund to have a lower risk.

An introduction of Fullerton, and the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund

Incorporated in 2003, Fullerton Fund Management (“Fullerton”) primarily operates in Singapore, while it has offices located in Shanghai, London and Brunei. Across its investments, the majority is into fixed income at 59%, with treasury management holding a relatively sizeable portion at 12%. It sees an interesting clientele base, serving a majority of insurance companies at a total of 53% (Chart 1).

Chart 1 – Fullerton Fund Management Client Segment

 

Fullerton is one of the asset management companies under Seviora Group, including the likes of Azalea Investment Management which issues the private equity-based Astrea series of bonds. Seviora Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings and it is the majority shareholder of Fullerton at 51%. Income Insurance Limited, one of Singapore’s few home-grown insurers, is the minority shareholder at 49%.

Coming to the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund, the fund’s objective is to provide investors with liquidity and return that is comparable to that of the Singapore Dollar Banks Savings Deposits rate (as given by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”)). The fund invests in SGD deposits of varying maturity tenures of up to 1 year. It may place a maximum of 10% into deposits between 1 to 2 years. On the other hand, the fund is allowed to invest in other permissible liquid instruments such as MAS Bills to capture higher yields when the situation permits.

As of 30 June 2023, the fund has an indicative yield to maturity of 4.03% with a weighted average maturity (“WAM”) period of 42 days. The fund stands out by having one of the lowest management fees and expense ratios across similar funds, which is at 0.10% p.a. and 0.15% p.a. respectively. It is also one of the larger cash/money market funds at a total fund size of SGD 2.68b. 

Cash fund? Money market fund?

Using the terminology “cash” in its naming requires the fund to fulfil certain regulations. Under the Code on Collective Investment Schemes Appendix 2, for the fund to be named a cash fund, the fund may only touch upon “eligible deposits” by “eligible financial institutions” as defined by MAS (Table 1). Ultimately, it might be easier to view cash funds as a particular subset of money market funds – limited to investing in deposits by banks licensed and/or approved by MAS. 

Table 1 – Definition of eligible deposits and eligible financial institutions by MAS

Definition
Eligible DepositsDeposits with banks licensed under the Banking Act (Cap. 19), finance companies licensed under the Finance Companies Act (Cap. 108), merchant banks licensed under the Banking Act or any other deposit-taking institution licensed under an equivalent law in a foreign jurisdiction
Eligible Financial Institutions
  1. a financial institution which has a minimum short-term rating of F-2 by Fitch, P-2 by Moody’s or A-2 by Standard and Poor’s (including such sub-categories or gradations therein)

  2. a financial institution rated other than by the credit rating organisations specified in paragraph (i) above for which the manager has satisfied the trustee (or the VCC Directors, in the case of a scheme constituted as a VCC or is a sub-fund thereof) that its short-term rating is comparable to the ratings in paragraph (i) above

  3. a Singapore-incorporated bank licensed under the Banking Act (Cap. 19) which is not rated, but has been approved under the Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme to accept fixed deposits
Sources: Monetary Authority of Singapore Code on Collective Investment Schemes

Amidst the competition for money market and cash funds

With the rise in interest rates, it is clear to see why money market and cash funds have been getting so popular. Looking into the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund, below we highlight several reasons why investors should be considering this fund – 

1. Efficient and fast settlement time for redemption at T+1

In this market environment where cash is still king and investment opportunities galore, investors’ cash has to move fast enough to tap into such investment opportunities. The Fullerton SGD Cash Fund allows investors to quickly switch out of their portfolio – with just a settlement turnover period of T+1 for units redemption. 

Fullerton highlighted several reasons within its fund structure that allowed for this quick settlement period. (1) It emphasized a tight vertical integration of its cashflow and portfolio, which enabled a faster turnaround time between its operational teams. (2) With the current investment mandate, it had been focusing on a short placement period to maturity – allowing for an active management of cashflow and daily liquidity needs. 

As such, the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund provides for liquidity needs through its operational structure, rather than holding an excess amount of cash – allowing for the yield to be maximized. 

Numerous investment opportunities continue to surface in the current market environment, which provides a limited timeframe for investors to react. For investors looking at places to park their idle cash while maintaining liquidity, the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund is an attractive choice/option given (1) its ability to tap on the high interest rates on deposits and (2) its quick settlement for the redemption of units at T+1 for investors’ liquidity needs. 

2. Multi-pronged approach towards seeking alpha

Given that the fund is limited to deposits within the guidelines set by MAS, the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund has to be innovative in its ways to seek alpha in its yields. Fullerton highlighted its four approaches – WAM management, Curve management, Sector and Product management, and Entity management.

WAM and curve management have been the main source of alpha in the recent period. With the rise in interest rates, the SGD yield curve had similarly reached an inversion since last year – with the shorter tenors looking more attractive and minimal incentive to consider longer term yields. As such, Fullerton’s strategy on the WAM had adapted accordingly in 2022, which saw the 3-months rolling WAM fall from 40 days at the start of 2022, to 20 days closer to the end of 2022 – while recently had increased to the current 42 days. 

On this note, Fullerton mentioned in its commentary that due to the elevated interest rate environment in Singapore, Fullerton’s positioning shift to shorter-dated deposits had contributed positively to the portfolio. Fullerton indicated that the gradual increment to the current WAM was to allow the fund to capture higher yield differentials, especially on the backdrop of softening inflation and “in anticipation of the peaking of market rates.”

The flexibility within its mandate to primarily look at deposits within a 1-year maturity, along with the maneuverability of its WAM, allows Fullerton to capture yields along the curve.

On the other hand, Sector and Product management examines the type of instruments they invest into, while Entity management relates to the counterparties the fund may engage for investments. Both help to expand the number of options that Fullerton may choose from – beyond just seeking alpha, ensuring diversification of investments to reduce risk exposure.

3. Lowest risk among the lowest risk

Limiting itself in deposits becomes an advantage for the fund in the context of risk management, given the typically larger volatility on the pricing of the money market and debt securities. For Fullerton SGD Cash Fund specifically, the maximum drawdown over the past 5 years was at 0.005% - being relatively low given the aggressive change in interest rates since 2022.

While the deposits within the fund are not guaranteed by SDIC, deposits continue to rank highly in the event of claims. The likelihood of a counterparty failure by the banks remains considerably low given the stringent regulations by MAS to operate in Singapore and hold deposits.

For Fullerton SGD Cash Fund, the top five counterparties holding more than 60% of the fund are (1) Qatar National Bank, (2) Bank of Nova Scotia, (3) Landesbank B-Wuerttemberg, (4) Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, and (5) MUFG Bank as of 30 June 2023. The latter two are globally systemic important banks (“G-SIBs”) based in Japan, while the others are multinational banks with a strong presence in their respective home countries. Fullerton has indicated that it will strive to identify more counterparty contacts, allowing them to seek higher yields where possible and diversify their options. 

In addition, the fund is able to invest in MAS Bills, which holds the strongest credit rating of triple-A by international credit rating agencies. Previously, as of 31 March 2023, MAS Bills represented 31.04% of the fund’s holdings. By investing in MAS Bills, the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund is able to further reduce the overall risk exposure – making it one of the best considerations for investors seeking money market funds with risk as low as possible. 

Conclusion

The Fullerton SGD Cash Fund stands out in the market given the few strengths it holds as a cash fund. The quick turnaround time for settlement of redemption of units at T+1 provides for the necessary liquidity to investors seeking opportunities in the market, while the risk has mostly been mitigated by limiting the investments into bank deposits and MAS Bills. But most importantly, the fund is able to continue capturing optimal yields moving forward – thanks to the flexibility in investing across a range of maturity periods.

Alternatively, for investors looking for greater diversification, our SGD Auto-Sweep account offers a mixture of the better performing money market funds on our platform. With Fullerton SGD Cash Fund being one of the outstanding funds, it has the highest allocation within the SGD Auto-Sweep account at 35% - while the SGD Auto-Sweep similarly offers the T+1 settlement crucial for investors looking for liquidity. Furthermore, SGD Auto-Sweep allows investors to use it as a payment method for a wide range of investment products with no lag time.

Declaration:

For specific disclosure, at the time of publication of this report, IFPL (via its connected and associated entities) and the analyst who produced this report hold a NIL position in the abovementioned securities.

All materials and contents found in this site are strictly for general circulation and informational purposes only and should not be considered as an offer, or solicitation, to deal in any of the funds or products found/identified in this site. While iFAST Financial Pte Ltd ("IFPL") has tried to provide accurate and timely information, there may be inadvertent delays, omissions, technical or factual inaccuracies and typographical errors. Any opinion or estimate contained in this report is made on a general basis and neither IFPL nor any of its servants or agents have given any consideration to nor have they or any of them made any investigation of the investment objective, financial situation or particular need of any user or reader, any specific person or group of persons. You should consider carefully if the products you are going to purchase are suitable for your investment objective, investment experience, risk tolerance and other personal circumstances. If you are uncertain about the suitability of the investment product, please seek advice from a financial adviser, before making a decision to purchase the investment product. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. The value of the investment products and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. In respect of any matters arising from, or in connection with the said research analyses or research reports, recipients of the report are to contact IFPL at 10 Collyer Quay, #26-01 Ocean Financial Centre Building, Singapore 049315, or by telephone at +65 6557 2853. Where the report contains research analyses or research reports from a foreign research house and if the recipient of such research analyses or research reports is not an accredited investor, expert investor, institutional investor or an ex-accredited investor, IFPL accepts legal responsibility for the contents of such analyses or reports to such persons only to the extent as required by law. Please note that only certain security(ies) herein are available to all investors, while the rest are only available for certain persons to invest in, such as Accredited Investors (as defined in the Securities and Futures Act) or one who invests at least S$200,000 (or its equivalent currency) per transaction. To qualify as an Accredited Investor, one needs to submit a declaration form and certain relevant supporting documents, according to iFAST’s prevailing policies and procedures.

Please read our full disclaimers on the website at ( https://secure.fundsupermart.com/fsmone/policies/328125/investment-account-terms-&-conditions).

iFAST Financial Pte Ltd (IFPL) (registered address: 10 Collyer Quay #26-01 Ocean Financial Centre Singapore 049315, Telephone: 6557 2000) holds the Financial Advisers Licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore ('MAS') to conduct regulated activities of advising on securities, marketing of collective investment schemes and arranging of any contract of insurance in respect of life policies, other than a contract of reinsurance and the Capital Markets Services Licence issued by the MAS to conduct regulated activities of dealing in securities and providing custodial services for securities. While IFPL has made every effort to ensure the independence of the report's contents, IFPL's nature of business is such that IFPL and its connected and associated entities together with their respective directors, officers and staff may be involved in providing dealing or investment-related services in the abovementioned securities, and have taken or may take positions in the securities mentioned in this report, and may also act as the principal for any buy or sell trades.

Ways to Invest with FSM Global
Why FSM Global
Don't have an account with us?
Open an account here
Need Financial Advice?
Make an appointment

We use cookies If you close this message or continue to use this site, you will consent to the use of Cookies, unless you choose to disable them. Click on our Privacy Policy to understand more.