Cash management accounts in Singapore: StashAway, Syfe, Endowus, Mari Invest, and more

 We all know that stashing your savings away in a run-of-the-mill POSB savings account is a waste due to dismal interest rates. High-interest savings accounts (like the UOB One, DBS Multiplier and OCBC 360) offer better returns, but you have to jump through all kinds of hoops to unlock the best rates.

Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) and T-bills were seeing extremely healthy rates in 2022 — 4.19 per cent yield on a T-bill!-but have since dipped considerably to under three per cent in 2024. Fixed deposit rates have also been falling, plus your deposit is often locked up for a good year or so, making your cash far less liquid.

What alternatives do we have? Instead of letting your cash languish in a bank account, you might want to try growing it through a cash management account.

1. Summary of cash management accounts in Singapore: Project returns, minimum deposits, and more

* Please note that rates change and are not guaranteed. As of November 2024, the above rates were offered by these companies as reliable estimates of returns. 

2. What are cash management accounts and how do they work?

A cash management account is an alternative to a regular checking or savings account, usually offered by non-bank companies. You can store your cash in these accounts, grow your money in them, and withdraw cash whenever you like. That may sound like a traditional savings account to you, but there are some differences.

Secondly, the main advantage of cash management accounts is that they tend to offer attractive interest rates compared to bank accounts and more importantly, are relatively fuss-free. You don’t have to spend X amount on your credit card, credit your salary, or take up a new insurance policy just to hit a higher interest rate. 

Other than better interest rates, another advantage of parking your money in a cash management account rather than a high interest savings account is that there are fewer restrictions on withdrawals.

With the latter, there’s a minimum balance you must keep. Your interest rate can suffer if you make withdrawals and your bank account balance falls below a certain amount.

Let’s take a look at the biggest cash management accounts in Singapore.

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3. StashAway Simple

StashAway is a well-known robo advisor in Singapore that offers automated investments. The StashAway Simple cash management portfolio invests your cash in unit trusts. There is no minimum deposit or minimum balance, so you’re free to put as much or as little as you want into the account.

You also have the option of opening 2 StashAway Simple portfolios, one that you can fund using your SRS (Supplementary Retirement Scheme) and one that’s funded with cash.

Underlying funds: StashAway Simple grows your money through 2 low-risk funds:

• 30 per cent LionGlobal SGD Money Market Fund
• 70 per cent LionGlobal SGD Enhanced Liquidity Fund

Earnings and fees: You’ll be paying StashAway 0.15 per cent p.a. in management fees, and enjoying a projected rate of 3.50 per cent p.a. after accounting for fees.

Liquidity: There is no minimum lock-up period, so you can withdraw your cash at any time. That being said, a withdrawal takes about two to three business days to your personal bank account and three to four days for SRS withdrawals. You don’t want to rely on your StashAway Simple account for day-to-day spending.

Minimum balance or deposit: None.

4. StashAway Simple Plus

StashAway also offers Simple Plus, a cash management solution that is slightly higher risk than StashAway Simple. It works similarly, with no minimum balance or deposit required and options to invest with either cash or your SRS.

Underlying funds: StashAway Simple has three underlying funds:

• 20per cent LionGlobal SGD Enhanced Liquidity Fund
• 20per cent Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond Fund
• 60per cent LionGlobal Short Duration Bond Fund

The latter 2 short-term funds add more moderate volatility, but also higher projected returns compared to the StashAway Simple portfolio.

Earnings and fees: Simple Plus currently offers a projected yield of 3.8per cent after a 2per cent management fee is accounted for.

Liquidity: Withdrawing your funds takes four to six business days. StashAway does not impose a lock-in period, but state that they “do not recommend less than 12 months” for your investment period due to possible short-term volatility. 

Minimum balance or deposit: None.

5. Endowus Cash Smart - Secure, Enhanced, Ultra

Endowus is yet another robo investor that also has a cash management account, in the incarnation of Cash Smart.

There are three types of Endowus Cash Smart accounts on offer: Cash Smart Secure, Cash Smart Enhanced, and Cash Smart Ultra.

Cash Smart Secure is the lowest risk, but also offers the lowest projected returns. All three options come with a 0.15 per cent Endowus fee, which is already accounted for in projected yields in the table below.

	Endowus Cash Smart Secure	Endowus Cash Smart Enhanced	Endowus Cash Smart Ultra
Projected returns	2.9per cent to 3.2per cent p.a.	3.4per cent to 3.7per cent p.a.	3.7per cent to 4.0per cent p.a.
Underlying funds	Fund types: Institutional fixed deposit, money market fund 50per cent Fullerton SGD Cash Fund 50per cent LionGlobal SGD Enhanced Liquidity	Fund types: Short duration fund, cash fund, money market fund 50per cent UOB United SGD Fund 30per cent LionGlobal SGD Enhanced Liquidity 20per cent Fullerton SGD Cash Fund	Fund types: Short duration bonds, money market funds 10per cent Fullerton Short Term Interest Rate Fund 10per cent LionGlobal Short Duration Fund 10per cent PIMCO Low Duration Income Fund 15per cent Fullerton SGD Cash Fund 20per cent LionGlobal SGD Enhanced Liquidity Fund 35per cent UOB United SGD Fund

As we can expect, the portfolios with the higher projected returns also come with higher volatility. This is because of their underlying funds. Generally, cash funds pose the lowest risk, followed by money market funds and short-duration funds.

While Endowus Cash Smart Secure parks all your money in low-risk funds to support low but stable growth, Endowus Cash Smart Ultra offers a mixed portfolio for higher — but potentially more fluctuating — yields.

Minimum deposit: To start, you need to invest S$1,000 with Endowus. Subsequently, each investment has to be at least S$100.

Minimum balance: None.

How to invest: You can use cash or your SRS to invest in Endowus Cash Smart.

Liquidity: Cash withdrawals take about 2-4 working days, while SRS withdrawals are slightly longer at 3-5 working days.

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6. Syfe Cash+ Flexi

Syfe lets you invest idle SGD or USD in their cash management solution, Syfe Cash+ Flexi. Like Endowus’ and StashAway’s cash management accounts, it’s SRS-eligible.

Underlying funds (SGD):

• LionGlobal SGD Money Market Fund — 30 per cent
• LionGlobal SGD Enhanced Liquidity Fund SGD Class I (Accumulation) — 70 per cent

Earnings and fees: Syfe Cash+ Flexi currently offers a projected yield of 3.5 per cent (SGD) or 4.9 per cent (USD) after accounting for fund-level fees and management fees of 0.05 per cent to 0.15 per cent p.a. (SGD) or 0.15 per cent to 0.20 per cent p.a (USD).

Liquidity: There’s no lock-in period, and you can withdraw your cash at any time. Make your withdrawal request before 11am to receive your cash by the next business day by 7pm.

Minimum balance or deposit: None for SGD accounts. There is a minimum of US$10,000 or SGD equivalent when funding Cash+ Flexi USD.

7. FSMOne Auto-Sweep Account

An online trading platform and brokerage owned by Fundsupermarket, the FSMOne Auto-Sweep sounds like a new form of Toto, but it’s really a cash management account.

Its name comes from the fact that you can automate the transfer of all your spare cash (eg. dividends, sales proceeds) from your FSM brokerage account into your Auto-Sweep account so it gets to earn interest.

Plus you can also use the funds in your Auto-Sweep Account to invest in unit trusts, bonds, stocks and ETFs.  

Underlying funds: The portfolio consists of 90 per cent iFAST SGD Enhanced Liquidity A SGD (AS) and 10 per cent Cash Account.

Earnings and fees: Its latest net yield as of Nov 2024 was 2.844 per cent p.a. This sum is derived after deducting management fees of 0.05 per cent per quarter and fund-related fees.

Minimum balance and deposit: While the minimum deposit is $50, there is no minimum account balance you need to maintain. However, you do have to ensure there is a monthly recurring top-up of at least $100.

Liquidity: The FSMOne Auto-Sweep Account has no lock-in period. You can withdraw your cash (minimum $50) within the same business day if you make your redemption by 10am, making it the fastest management account on this list in terms of withdrawal.

8. Mari Invest

Mari Invest is a good option for Mari Bank customers. The product gives you access to the Lion-MariBank SavePlus fund (more on that below) and lets you make instant withdrawals. Plus, look forward to zero transaction fees and sales fees!

Note that you must be a Mari Bank customer to use Mari Invest. If you’re for some reason resistant to joining Mari Bank, there’s no way in to Mari Invest.

Underlying funds: Managed by Lion Global Investors, the Lion-MariBank SavePlus fund comprises mainly MAS Bills (over 60 per cent) and high-quality bond funds. All in all, this is a low-risk portfolio. You can check the fund information page on the MariBank app for the latest portfolio breakdown.

Earnings: 3.17 per cent p.a. based on a past 4-week return as of 28 Oct 2024. 

Fees: The good news is that there are no transaction fees, upfront fees, sales charge, or platform fees. Any returns you see on your app already factor in any ongoing fees, so what you see if what you’ll get. There is an annual management fee of 0.25 per cent p.a. charged by the fund manager Lion Global Investors (LGI), but at least this is already factored into each day’s unit price too. Meaning if or when you buy or sell fund units, the price you see is again what you’ll get. No further hidden deductions!

Minimum initial deposit: Start from as small as just $1.

Liquidity: Extremely liquid — withdrawals are instant and free.

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9. Moomoo Cash Plus

If you’ve seen Moomoo Cash Plus’ latest promotion, your eyes might have bugged out. 6.8 per cent p.a.? How? 

Firstly, understand that you only get to enjoy 6.8 per cent p.a. for 30 days. All good things come to an end, and this good thing comes to an end after just a month. It’s also limited to $80,000 per user.

Okay, but 6.8 per cent p.a. is still pretty high. How does Moomoo guarantee this return? Like Chocolate Finance, their strategy is to top up the difference if their fund underperforms. For example, if a chosen fund (like Fullerton SGD Fund) has a 3.9 per cent annualised yield, Moomoo will top up the difference to ensure you still get your 6.8 per cent annualised yield during the first 30 days.

Underlying funds: Fullerton Cash Fund for SGD or CSOP USD Money Market Fund

Earnings: 6.8 per cent p.a. for first 30 days. 

Fees: No subscription and redemption fees.

Minimum initial deposit: Start from just $0.01. Can’t get any smaller!

Liquidity: Withdraw any time with no lock-in period.

10. Phillip SMART Park, POEMS

Phillips Securities’ POEMS brokerage is one of Singapore’s most well-known. They’ve got their own version of a cash management account called SMART Park. It’s designed to park idle cash, such as dividends from your stockholdings that haven’t been reinvested.

Earnings: The 7-day annualised return as of 18 Nov 2024 is 2.8099 per cent p.a.

Fees: No sales charge or administrative fees.

Underlying funds: SMART Park invests in Phillip Money Market Fund for SGD, and Phillip US Dollar Money Market Fund A for USD. These Money market funds contain government and corporate bonds, commercial bills and fixed deposits, which are pretty stable, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. 

You can also use your funds from SMART Park to purchase investment products via POEMS should you wish to do so.  

Minimum initial deposit and balance:The minimum initial deposit is $10,000, and you’ll subsequently have to ensure you maintain at least $100 in the account if you want to continue receiving returns.

Liquidity: Withdrawals are super fast — you can receive your cash by the same working day if you send your withdrawal request by 10am. There’s also no lock-in period.

11. Chocolate Finance

You may have seen advertisements for Chocolate Finance in our MRT stations—”make life richer”, they claim. Indeed, Chocolate Finance offers quite a high return of 3.6 per cent p.a. on your first $20,000 and 3.2 per cent p.a. on your next $30,000 with them. They swear that, if their portfolio underperforms, they will top up the difference to ensure you get the rates promised.

This is a promotional incentive that only applies during the qualifying period from now till March 31, 2025 or until the Chocolate Managed Account reaches S$1 billion — whichever comes first.

Of course, they also say this: "Risk disclosure : This programme does not constitute a guarantee of capital or returns. Chocolate has the right to pause or stop the programme at any time due to market disruption, over-utilisation of the programme, excessive withdrawals, exchange restrictions, or other unexpected force majeure events."

Hmm. If you ask me, I would be the most cautious of Chocolate Finance out of all the cash management accounts on this list. Even without considering their promise above, the underlying funds are riskier short-term ones too:

• Dimensional Short-Term Investment Grade SGD Fund (DSF)
• UOBAM United SGD Fund (USF)
• Fullerton Short Term interest rate SGD Fund (FST)
• LionGlobal Short Duration Bond SGD Fund (LGF)
• Nikko AM Shenton Short Term SGD Fund (NST)

On the plus side, your chocolate-coated funds will be held by custodians HSBC and State Street, and not by Chocolate Finance. So if one day Chocolate were to go bust, your funds won’t go under with them.

How to invest with them: Cash. Chocolate Finance does not SRS funding currently.

Fees: Chocolate Finance currently has no fees. To make money, they’re banking on outperforming their target.  Once that happens, after you get the returns they promised you, they’ll take a fee of 0 — two per cent depending on how much the portfolio outperforms.

Minimum balance: No minimum or maximum.

Liquidity: Chocolate Finance has no lock-in period. Withdraw your cash anytime — withdrawals up to $20,000 are instant, while those over $20,000 will take 3-10 business days.

12. Are cash management accounts protected by the SDIC?

When we talk about the safety associated with savings accounts, we often reference the Singapore Deposit Insurance Scheme (SDIC).

This scheme insures up to S$75,000 of your funds, providing a capital guarantee in cash anything should happen to your bank. A bank closure is unlikely, but read our guide on what happens if your bank collapses overnight if you’re really worried.

Cash management accounts are considered an investment product and not a bank deposit. Unfortunately, that means they are not covered by SDIC. If — touch wood — disaster were to strike your financial institution — there’s a slight risk to your capital.