CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS)

The CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) lets CPF members invest a portion of their Ordinary Account (OA) and Special Account (SA) savings in an approved range of instruments, aiming for returns above the CPF interest they would otherwise earn.

It has two arms: CPFIS-OA, which draws on Ordinary Account savings, and CPFIS-SA, which draws on Special Account savings. The SA already earns a higher base interest rate than the OA, so the CPFIS-SA menu is deliberately narrower and more conservative.

CPFIS is administered by the CPF Board, but members do not trade directly with the Board. They act through product providers (for unit trusts, insurers for ILPs) and, for shares and other exchange instruments, through a CPFIS agent bank.

A member may only invest savings above a set-aside amount in each account. For CPFIS-OA, the first S$20,000 of OA savings must remain and cannot be invested; only OA savings above this floor are investible. For CPFIS-SA, the first S$40,000 of SA savings must remain uninvested.

Keep two figures apart. What a member can move into CPFIS-OA today is the OA balance ABOVE the S$20,000 set-aside. The stock and gold limits are percentages of investible savings, which CPF Board defines as the OA balance plus CPF savings already withdrawn (net of refunds) for investment and education. The set-aside is NOT deducted. Example: OA balance S$25,000, nothing invested or used for education before. Investible savings is S$25,000, so the stock limit is 35% × S$25,000 = S$8,750; but only S$5,000 can be withdrawn to invest, so S$5,000 is the most that can go into shares today.

Because CPFIS-SA already benefits from a higher guaranteed interest rate, members are encouraged to think carefully before investing SA monies; historically the SA menu was narrowed to lower-risk products.