Your CPF savings will compound for decades before you touch them. Even a small difference in the interest rate adds up to a lot by the time you retire.
Here’s the short answer. Your Ordinary Account (OA) earns 2.5% per annum, while your Special, MediSave, and Retirement Accounts earn 4% per annum. On top of that, extra interest on your first $60,000 of combined balances means you can earn up to 5% if you’re below 55, or up to 6% if you’re 55 and above.
These rates are reviewed every quarter, so always check the CPF Board’s interest rates page for the live figures. But where do the numbers come from, and why have they barely moved in over two decades? Let’s dig in.
How Are CPF Interest Rates Determined?
CPF interest rates are not fixed by the Government at whatever level it likes. Each account’s rate is pegged to a market interest rate, reviewed quarterly, and protected by a minimum rate (a “floor”) so that your savings keep growing even when market rates are low.
SIDE NOTE
A policy bought years ago. Savings in three places. A will that's still on the to-do list.
None of it is wrong. It's just not a plan yet.
There's an order that turns the pieces into one system, and it doesn't require becoming a finance expert. Here's the order, in 7 steps, so you know what to sort out first.
Ordinary Account interest rate
The OA rate is pegged to the 3-month average of major local banks’ interest rates, subject to a legislated minimum of 2.5% per annum.
Bank rates in Singapore have been far below that minimum for over two decades. The pegged rate was just 0.32% for February to April 2026, based on figures from the CPF Board, so in practice the 2.5% minimum is what you actually earn.
This is also why the HDB concessionary housing loan rate never seems to move. It’s pegged at 0.1% above the OA rate, so it has sat at 2.6% per annum for just as long.
Special, MediSave and Retirement Account interest rates
The rates for the Special Account (SA), MediSave Account (MA), and Retirement Account (RA), collectively called SMRA, are pegged to the 12-month average yield of 10-year Singapore Government Securities (10YSGS) plus 1%, subject to a floor of 4% per annum.
The pegged rate was 3.09% for May 2025 to April 2026, below the floor, so the 4% floor applies. All three accounts are reviewed quarterly. If you last read up on CPF a few years ago, note that the RA used to be reviewed once a year, and joined the quarterly SMRA peg on 1 January 2024.
The interest rate floors
The 2.5% minimum on the OA is written into law. The 4% floor on the SMRA is not permanent. It has been extended repeatedly since it was introduced in 2008, most recently until 31 December 2026.
The design works in both directions. When market rates are low, as they are now, the floor protects you and you earn more than the market would pay. When market rates climb high enough, the peg takes over and you earn more than the floor. That happened as recently as 2024.
The Current CPF Interest Rates
For the July to September 2026 quarter, CPF savings earn the following base rates:
| Account | Interest rate (p.a.) |
|---|---|
| Ordinary Account (OA) | 2.5% |
| Special Account (SA) | 4% |
| MediSave Account (MA) | 4% |
| Retirement Account (RA) | 4% |
The SA only exists for members below 55, which we cover further down. The SMRA rate has been back at its 4% floor since the first quarter of 2025, and the OA has been at 2.5% since 1999.
How much of your salary flows into each account depends on your age and income. We break that down in our guide to CPF contribution and allocation rates.
One thing readers often mix up: monies in your Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account are not CPF monies and earn nothing like these rates. Idle SRS cash earns whatever your agent bank pays, which OCBC puts at 0.05% per year.
How to Earn Extra Interest on Your CPF Balances
On top of the base rates, the Government pays extra interest on the first $60,000 of your combined CPF balances, with no more than $20,000 of that coming from your OA. This is how members earn up to 5% per annum (below 55) or up to 6% per annum (55 and above) on part of their savings. The tiers deliberately give more help to members with lower balances.
If you’re below 55
You earn an extra 1% per annum on the first $60,000 of your combined balances, counted in this order: OA (capped at $20,000), then SA, then MA. The extra interest on your OA savings is paid into your SA, and the extra interest on your SA and MA savings stays in those accounts.
Say John, who is 40, has $50,000 in his OA, $12,500 in his SA, and $12,500 in his MA. His total CPF balance is $75,000, but his combined balance for extra interest is only $45,000, because just $20,000 of that OA money counts. He isn’t getting the full benefit of the extra 1%.
If John is confident he won’t need his OA savings for housing, he could consider moving some of it to his SA. The transfer is one-way and cannot be reversed, so it deserves careful thought.
QUICK CHECK
Can you answer these three questions?
1) If something happened to you tomorrow, how much would your family receive?
2) At 65, what monthly income will your savings and investments pay you?
3) If you never get round to a will, who inherits what, and in what proportion?
Most people manage one at best. Not because they're careless, but because nobody has shown them which order to tackle things in.
That order exists. Work through your finances in this sequence, from income and protection through to investments and estate planning.
If you’re 55 and above
You earn an extra 2% per annum on the first $30,000 of your combined balances and an extra 1% on the next $30,000. The same $20,000 OA cap applies. Since the SA is gone by this age, the order is RA (including savings used for CPF LIFE), then OA (capped at $20,000), then MA.
Say Mary, who is 58, has $20,000 in her RA, $60,000 in her OA, and $20,000 in her MA. The extra 2% is paid on her first $30,000, made up of $20,000 from the RA and $10,000 from the OA. The extra 1% is paid on the next $30,000, made up of another $10,000 from the OA, which hits the cap, and $20,000 from the MA.
Extra interest on OA savings goes into the RA, and extra interest on RA and MA savings stays in those accounts. If you’re on CPF LIFE, you still earn extra interest on your combined balances, including the savings committed to CPF LIFE premiums.
What Happened to the Special Account for Those 55 and Above?
The Special Accounts of around 1.4 million CPF members aged 55 and above were closed on 19 January 2025. SA savings moved to the RA, up to the member’s Full Retirement Sum, with any remainder going to the OA. Everyone’s SA now closes automatically at 55.
Why close it? Before the change, SA savings could be withdrawn on demand after 55 while still earning the long-term 4% rate, and some members made full use of that quirk. Now the rate matches how long the money actually stays put. Savings you can withdraw anytime earn the OA rate, and savings committed to retirement earn the long-term rate.
Two things follow. OA-to-SA transfers are only possible before you turn 55, and after that the equivalent move is topping up your RA, which we cover in our guide to CPF and your retirement. And if you’re above 55 with money sitting in your OA, the gap between 2.5% and 4% is now a real decision, since moving it to your RA earns more but locks it into retirement payouts.
The One Time the Rates Rose Above the Floor
Between July 2023 and December 2024, CPF Special and MediSave Account savings earned above the 4% floor for six consecutive quarters, peaking at 4.14% in the final quarter of 2024. SmartWealth’s compilation of CPF Board quarterly announcements shows this is the only period since the current peg took effect in 2008 in which the formula, rather than the floor, set the rate.
| Quarter | SA and MA rate (p.a.) | RA rate (p.a.) |
|---|---|---|
| Jul to Sep 2023 | 4.01% | 4%* |
| Oct to Dec 2023 | 4.04% | 4%* |
| Jan to Mar 2024 | 4.08% | 4.08% |
| Apr to Jun 2024 | 4.05% | 4.05% |
| Jul to Sep 2024 | 4.08% | 4.08% |
| Oct to Dec 2024 | 4.14% | 4.14% |
| Jan 2025 onwards | 4% | 4% |
*The RA was still on its old annual review in 2023, so it stayed at 4% until it joined the quarterly peg on 1 January 2024.
Global interest rates surged from 2022, which pushed the 12-month average 10YSGS yield plus 1% above 4%. When yields eased, the pegged rate slipped back below the floor, where it has stayed since the first quarter of 2025.
So don’t treat 4% as a ceiling or as a guarantee. It’s a floor that has been extended year by year, and the actual rate can go above it if yields climb again.
How Is CPF Interest Computed & Credited to You?
CPF interest is computed monthly but credited only once a year, by early the following year, and compounded annually, per the CPF Board’s explanation.
That matters more than it sounds. If you have $50,000 in your OA, the monthly computation gives you about $104 of interest each month, but that interest doesn’t join your balance until it’s credited at the start of the next year. Until then you keep earning on the same $50,000, not on a balance that grows month by month.
Two rules govern contributions and withdrawals. Money paid in starts earning interest from the following month, and money withdrawn stops earning interest in the month of withdrawal. The exact day within the month makes no difference, so the 1st and the 31st give the same result.
Why top-ups are better made in January
If you’re certain you want to top up this year, doing it in January means the top-up earns interest from February onwards, that is, for 11 months of the year. Do it in December and it earns nothing at all that calendar year, although you may still qualify for tax relief either way.
Over the decades to retirement, an extra 11 months of compounding each year adds up.
How Is CPF Able to Pay These Rates?
Members earned $23.6 billion in interest for 2025, credited to their accounts in January 2026, and that is more than 13 times what CPF LIFE paid out over the same year. So where does the money come from?
CPF Board does not put your savings into the market. It invests them in Special Singapore Government Securities (SSGS), non-tradable bonds issued and guaranteed by the Singapore Government specifically for CPF savings. The proceeds, together with proceeds from Singapore Government Securities (SGS), government surpluses, and land sales, are pooled and managed by MAS and GIC for the long term. SSGS proceeds are not passed to Temasek.
Because SSGS are government-guaranteed, your CPF interest doesn’t depend on how those investments perform in any given year. The full backing of Singapore’s reserves stands behind it, and we’ve written more about the size of the national reserves if you’re curious.
If you want the chance of higher returns and accept the risks, you can invest part of your OA and SA savings yourself through the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS). Returns are not guaranteed there, and past performance doesn’t predict future outcomes.
How to Grow Your Assets Further
Returns of 4% to 6%, backed by the Government and reviewed every quarter, are hard to find at this level of risk anywhere else. If you believe in maximising CPF, cash top-ups, OA-to-SA transfers (before 55), and RA top-ups (from 55) all put more of your money at the higher rates.
But there are limits to how much you can put in, and CPF is only one part of a complete retirement plan. Whether topping up CPF should come before, say, closing an insurance gap or investing depends on your age, your housing plans, and when you want to stop working.
If you’re unsure where topping up sits among your other priorities, a comprehensive financial planning session can help you work out the right order for you and your loved ones.
BEFORE YOU GO
Articles can tell you what generally makes sense. They can't see your policies, your CPF, or your plans.
FullCircle is our comprehensive financial planning session. A licensed consultant goes through what you have, shows you the gaps and overlaps, and tells you what to prioritise across protection, retirement, and estate planning.
It's complimentary, takes about 45 minutes, and if nothing needs changing, we'll say so.