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Written Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Manpower, to PQ on CPFIS Returns

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1691 OF 2019 FOR THE SITTING ON 8 JULY OR LATER
QUESTION NO. 2846 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: MS FOO MEE HAR

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) how do rates of return from CPF members' self-directed investments made via the CPF Investment Scheme compare with those from pension funds invested by professionals such as that in Australia and the US; and (b) what is the average return over three years, five years and 10 years and how do these compare with industry benchmarks.

Answer

  1. The CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) provides CPF members with the option to invest their CPF savings in a diverse range of investment products to enhance their retirement savings. CPFIS is targeted at CPF members who have the knowledge and time to invest, and are prepared to take investment risk. CPF members who are not prepared to take risk, or have neither the knowledge nor time to invest, should consider growing their CPF savings through the risk-free CPF interest rates.
  2. The investment performance for each CPFIS investor varies depending on the investment decisions they make. For example, the asset type and basket of investment products purchased, market conditions at which the investments were purchased and sold, as well as the investment duration. For similar reasons, the performance of any investment fund may not reflect the returns of its individual investors.
  3. Hence, to assess the investment performance of CPFIS-OA investors, we compare their returns against the CPF Ordinary Account (OA) interest rates. This indicates whether CPFIS-OA investors make better returns than the alternative of leaving their CPF monies in the OA to earn the risk-free interest rates.
  4. The investment performance of CPFIS-OA investors fluctuate year on year in line with market conditions. In FY2018, only 38% of CPFIS-OA members registered in their accounts total profits above the OA interest rate of 2.5% p.a., whereas in the year before that, 74% of CPFIS-OA members registered total profits above 2.5% p.a.. Their realised returns may however differ from what was registered depending on the timing of specific investments.
  5. It is not meaningful to compare the investment performance of CPFIS investors to pension funds in other countries as these funds may have different objectives and investment strategies from our CPF system.