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1 Banking and Financial Development of Singapore BANKING AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA SINCE 1958 S. Y. Lee, Ph. D.. Department of Economics, University of Singapore Since the Currency Ordinance 1899, the Straits Settlements and the Malay States had been on the Currency Board monetary system. The first Currency Board notes were issued in 1900 and the first silver Straits dollars, in 1903. The Malayan dollar was pegged to sterling at the rate of 2s.4d. per dollar from February 1906 to exchange November, 19671 and hence Malaya and Singapore were in fact in the Sterling Exchange Standard. Under the Currency Board system, Malayan dollar was issued in exchange for sterling offered to the Currency Board by banks, and vice versa, so that the Currency Board with its Crown Agent at London functioned like a big exchange house, exchanging Malayan dollar for sterling. Malaya became independent in 1957 and Singapore gained self- government in 1959. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development sent a mission to Malaya and Singapore in 1954 to study the general economic conditions and to make recommendations , to improve the institutional system.in order to achieve a high rate of . economic development. The Report, 19552 emphasized the growing importance of local financial and banking facilities and monetary conditions. Among numerous recommendations, it proposed to appoint a special commission to investigate the feasibility of the establishment of a central bank. Sir Sydney Caine, the economic adviser to the Colonial Govern- ment of Singapore and the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya, Singapore and G.M. Watson, an executive of the Bank of England, were then appointed to study in greater detail whether a central bank should be established, and if so, in what manner and on what principles it should be. The Watson-Caine Report, 1956 made a firm and favourable recommendation of the establishment of a Central Bank (or Banks?3 which should perform the traditional functions of 1 Sterling was devalued on 17 November 1967. Malaysian and Singapore dollars did not follow suit, as they maintained their gold parity of 0.290299 grammes of fine gold, which was declared in August 1966. 2 See International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Report on the Economic DeyetopnietTt j? Malay a?Singapore: Government Printer, 1955, Chapter III, Monetary and Financial Institution pp. 227-232 and Technical Report No. 12, Currency and Banking, pp. 640-653. , 3 G.M. Watson and Sir Sydney Caine, Elp2rt on the Establishment of a Central Bank in Malaya, Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1956. 1 the Currency Board, such as the issue of currency, and the maintaining of adequate sterling reserves; should make temporary advances of limited amounts to the two governments in order to cover seasonal fluctuations in their revenue; should have some limited functions of a . central bank such as as a bank and as a bankers' acting government ' bank. The central bank should prescribe the percentage of total liquid assets (domestic and foreign combined) which commercial banks must maintain against their liabilities. However banks should not be re- quired to keep reserve-deposits at the central bank for a specified per- centage of their deposit liabilities to the public, because of the absence of a developed money and capital market and the concentration of banking reserves in overseas holdings. Following the advice of the I.B. R.D. Report 1955, and the Watson- Caine Report, the Central Bank Ordinance was enacted in 1958 and Bank Negara Melayu (now called Bank Negara Malaysia) started operation in January 1959. , Bank Negara Malaysia As Malaya and Singapore were on the Currency Board System with 100% foreign exchange (primarily sterling) backing of currency, the monetary supply was rigidly related to the balance of payments position because an increase (decrease) of exports and hence an active (passive) balance of payments would cause more sterling to be offered to (purchased from) the Currency Board with the result of increasing (decreasing) currency issue and money supply. There was little scope for monetary policy in the sense that a recession ought to be rectified by a monetary expansion instead of monetary contraction as dictated by the balance of payments position in the Currency Board system. Besides, money and capital markets were not well developed to facilitate monetary policy or central banking policy. With this back- ground, Bank Negara has been endeavouring to stimu.late the develop- ment of the money and capital market. _ Bank Negara began to offer rediscount facility for Treasury bills in 1960. It provided cheque-clearing arrangement in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Penang. It provided free remittance of funds from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and Penang until 1967, the Currency Split. It provided floor space facility to the Stock-Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore. The monetary policy of Bank Negara is to foster local liquidity, to keep down the rate of interest in the market in order to lower the cost of public borrowing on Treasury bills and government securities and to facilitate investment in industries and commerce. It can influence the interest rate structure of commercial banks via the . Association of Banks in Malaysia and Singapore with respect to the loan rate as well as the uniform and maximum deposit rate for time z_ and savings deposits. Singapore was separated from Malaysia in 1965. After the failure 2 .
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