What?! 3.85% interest!

Yes, it's 3.85% p.a. interest. And it's not those invest $500/mth with us get 0.5% additional interest on savings, incremental savings get 0.8% bonus interest etc. The product I am sharing in this post is simply Fixed Deposit! Ok, not that simple, it is Renminbi (RMB) Fixed Deposit.

Why am I sharing this product? Because RMB-SGD has dropped to 4.9x now (nah, this is the actual rate from local money changers, can see CashChanger.co for an accurate guide) - same as half a year ago! But the difference is..half a year ago, the RMB Fixed Deposit interest was only 2.9% as compared to 3.85% now. Why I know it was 2.9%? Because I signed up half a year ago fml :(

Which Bank is offering such interest rate? ICBC! You may check out the interest rate here.  They have branches at Raffles Place, Chinatown, Paya Lebar, Jurong East, Sembawang, Simei, Punggol and Holland Village (click here to view the branches).

What are the risks? The most obvious would be the currency exchange risk. RMB may continue to slip and by the time your 1-year FD tenure is up, RMB-SGD may be >5! So, this RMB FD is good if you are able to stomach such risk and hold longer term should it be >5 when the tenure is up; or if you intend to go China for holiday one year later haha! But hey, it may go the other way round, i.e. RMB strengthen against SGD and we may see exchange rate at 4.6? When that happens, you would net currency gains (though we need to be worried about our economy when RMB strengthen too much).

Another risk I can think of is foreign currency FDs are not insured under Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation. So please take note!

Disclaimer: these are my personal opinion and for general information only. Please seek professional advice if necessary.