Singapore's MAS to issue currency notes, coins

Asian Economic News, Jan 28, 2002

SINGAPORE, Jan. 23 Kyodo

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will expand its responsibilities to include the issuance of currency notes and coins from March next year, officials said Wednesday.

The central bank will be merged with the Board of Commissioners of Currency -- the authority that now issues Singapore currency notes and coins -- next year, a Finance Ministry statement said.

With the change, the bank's role will include the issuance of currency notes and coins, like most other central banks in the world, a MAS spokeswoman said.

But the Finance Ministry said the merger is only meant to streamline operations and is not expected to change the way the Singapore dollar is managed.

It said it will also retain the policy of backing the currency in circulation by gold and foreign assets.

The Board of Commissioners of Currency was set up in 1967 to implement the currency board system when the Singapore currency was on a fixed exchange rate. But after the Singapore dollar was floated in 1973, the currency was managed by MAS.

''The merger...will enable us to rationalize common functions and realize efficiency gains, without compromising the overriding objective of managing the currency and maintaining confidence in the Singapore dollar.''