The CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) lets you take part of your CPF Ordinary Account (and, for some, Special Account) savings and put it into shares, unit trusts, ETFs, bonds and a few other approved products instead of leaving it to earn the guaranteed floor rate. The honest version: your OA already pays 2.5% per annum risk-free, your SA-equivalent monies pay 4%, and CPF's own data shows most people who invested their OA did not beat that 2.5%. CPFIS is a real option, not a free lunch. This guide covers the 2026 rules, what the Special Account closure changed, the fees, and how to decide if it is worth it for you.
CPFIS is the framework that lets CPF members invest a portion of their CPF savings in approved products instead of holding cash in their accounts. It has two arms. CPFIS-OA covers your Ordinary Account savings and runs through a CPF Investment Account (CPFIA) you open with one of three agent banks: DBS/POSB, OCBC or UOB. CPFIS-SA covers Special Account savings and is bought directly with the product provider, without a separate investment account.
The point of CPFIS is to let you reach for higher returns than the floor rates. Your OA pays 2.5% per annum and the Special, MediSave and Retirement Accounts pay 4% per annum (the floor on the 4% rate has been extended to 31 December 2026). Both are guaranteed and effectively risk-free. CPFIS only makes sense if you genuinely expect to beat those rates after costs, and you accept that you can lose money.
One thing to be clear about up front: CPFIS does not give you cash. Money invested through CPFIS stays inside the CPF system. When you sell, the proceeds go back into your CPF account, not your bank account. You are changing what your CPF money is invested in, not withdrawing it.
This is the biggest shift since the older guides were written, so read it carefully. On 19 January 2025 the Government closed the Special Account for all CPF members aged 55 and above. When you hit 55, a Retirement Account is created and your SA and OA savings flow into it up to your Full Retirement Sum. Any SA balance above the FRS now moves to your OA, where it earns at least 2.5% rather than 4%.
For CPFIS-SA, the practical effect is that members aged 55 and above can no longer make new CPFIS-SA investments, because the SA no longer exists for them. If you already hold CPFIS-SA investments from before 55, you can keep holding them until you choose to sell or until they mature. CPF's wording is direct: upon sale or maturity, your proceeds are paid to your Retirement Account up to your Full Retirement Sum, with any remaining balance paid to your Ordinary Account.
Members below 55 still have a Special Account, so CPFIS-SA technically remains open to them. In practice it was always a narrow tool, because SA money already earns 4% and the approved CPFIS-SA product list is short. For most people under 55, the SA is best left alone to compound at 4%, and CPFIS is really a question about your OA. See our CPF retirement sum guide for how the RA and FRS work.
To invest under CPFIS you must be at least 18 years old, not an undischarged bankrupt, and have completed the CPFIS Self-Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) if you are new to investing. The SAQ is a short online quiz that checks whether you understand basic investment risk before you can put CPF money into products. It is free and you only need to pass it once.
On balances, you need more than $20,000 in your OA and/or more than $40,000 in your SA to start. These thresholds exist because the first slices of each account are ring-fenced and cannot be invested at all.
CPFIS-OA has a wider product menu than CPFIS-SA. The OA list runs from lower-risk instruments such as fixed deposits, Singapore Government Securities and Treasury Bills all the way up to individual shares and gold. The SA list is restricted to lower- to medium-risk products only, so no individual stocks and no gold.
Two caps apply to riskier holdings within your CPFIS-OA investible savings. You can put up to 35% into shares and property funds, and up to 10% into gold (gold ETFs and other gold products). The rest must go into the broader approved list.
| Product type | CPFIS-OA | CPFIS-SA | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed deposits | Yes | Yes | No special cap |
| Singapore Government Securities, T-bills | Yes | Yes | No special cap |
| Unit trusts (selected risk ratings) | Yes | Lower-risk only | No special cap |
| Investment-linked insurance (ILPs) | Yes | Lower-risk only | No special cap |
| Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) | Yes | No | Within 35% share limit |
| Shares listed on SGX | Yes | No | Up to 35% of investible OA |
| REITs and property funds (selected) | Yes | No | Within 35% limit |
| Gold ETFs and gold products | Yes | No | Up to 10% of investible OA |
Costs used to be the quiet killer of CPFIS returns. The big reforms fixed the worst of it. Since 1 October 2020 the sales charge on CPFIS unit trusts and ILPs is capped at 0%, so you are no longer paying an upfront 3% just to buy a fund. Wrap account fees, charged by platforms that let you switch between funds, are capped at 0.4% per annum on your fund portfolio value.
That does not make CPFIS free. You still pay the fund's own annual management fee, bundled into its expense ratio. CPF caps the total expense ratio at 0.35% to 1.75% per annum depending on the fund's risk category, so a low-risk money-market fund sits near the bottom and an equity unit trust near the top. For shares and ETFs bought through your agent bank, broker's commission runs 0.25% to 0.28% of the trade amount with a minimum of $25 per transaction, on top of the agent bank's own per-counter service charge and quarterly account fee. Every dollar of fees is a dollar your investment has to earn back before you are ahead of the 2.5% you would have got for free.
Compare that hurdle honestly. To beat the OA floor net of a 1% all-in fee, your investments need to return about 3.5% per annum just to break even against doing nothing. The compound interest calculator makes the gap obvious over 20 years, and the fixed deposit vs investing calculator shows what a small fee drag costs over a working life.
| Charge | Cap or typical rate | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Sales charge | 0% (capped since 1 Oct 2020) | Unit trusts and ILPs |
| Wrap fee | Up to 0.4% per annum of portfolio value | Fund wrap platforms |
| Total expense ratio | Capped at 0.35% to 1.75% per annum | Unit trusts and ILPs, by risk band |
| Broker's commission | 0.25% to 0.28%, minimum $25 per trade | Shares and ETFs via agent bank |
| Service and account charges | Set by each agent bank | CPF Investment Account holders |
For most people, historically, no. CPF publishes a CPFIS-OA Profits/Losses Report tracking how members who invested their OA savings actually did. Over the ten years from 2013 to 2022, roughly a quarter of CPFIS-OA investors earned returns above the 2.5% OA rate, and close to 45% made outright losses. The majority either lost money or earned less than the guaranteed floor they gave up.
Why so poor? A mix of high fees in the older years, poor fund selection, chasing performance, and selling at the wrong time. The 2.5% OA rate is not a soft target. It is guaranteed, paid every year, and it compounds. Beating it after costs requires either a sustained equity allocation held through downturns or a genuinely cheap, sensible portfolio, neither of which describes how many CPFIS accounts were run.
The takeaway is not never invest. It is that CPFIS rewards discipline and low costs, and punishes everything else. If you are not prepared to hold a diversified, low-fee portfolio through a bear market without panic-selling, your OA at 2.5% is a perfectly respectable place to leave the money.
If you have decided CPFIS suits you, the process is short.
Before committing CPF money, weigh the alternative. Topping up your CPF accounts under the Retirement Sum Topping-Up scheme earns the guaranteed 4% on the receiving account and can give you a tax relief of up to $8,000 per year for top-ups to yourself. Compared with a CPFIS bet that historically lost for nearly half the people who tried, that guaranteed 4% plus tax relief is hard to argue against. Our SRS vs CPF top-up comparison runs through the trade-off.
CPF asks members to run through a short set of questions before investing, and they are worth taking seriously because the money at stake is your retirement floor. Work through each one honestly, not optimistically.
If you cannot answer the first four with a clear yes, the fifth answers itself: the opportunity cost of giving up a guaranteed 2.5% is too high for you, and leaving the OA alone is the better call.
The real question is rarely CPFIS in isolation. It is CPFIS versus the two things you could do instead with the same dollar: leave it in the OA at the guaranteed rate, or top up your retirement savings for 4% plus tax relief. The table lines up the trade-off at a glance.
Our SRS vs CPF top-up comparison and OA vs SA comparison go deeper on the guaranteed-return routes, and the CPF LIFE payout calculator shows how a bigger retirement balance feeds monthly income later.
| Factor | Invest via CPFIS-OA | Leave in OA | Top up RA (RSTU) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return | Market-dependent, can be negative | 2.5% per annum guaranteed | 4% per annum guaranteed |
| Risk of loss | Yes | None | None |
| Liquidity for housing | Sell first, proceeds locked in CPF | Usable for housing | Locked until retirement |
| Tax relief | None | None | Up to $8,000 a year for self |
| Effort and fees | Ongoing, fees apply | None | One transfer, no fees |
| Who it suits | Long-horizon, risk-aware investors | Anyone wanting safety or housing flexibility | Those certain they will not need the cash |
Setting up is quick. Once you pass the Self-Awareness Questionnaire and open a CPF Investment Account, CPF generally processes the application within one working day, and the link to your agent bank for transferring investments is usually ready within one to two weeks. You then buy through your chosen platform or product provider.
Getting the money out works differently from a normal brokerage. When you sell a CPFIS holding, the proceeds return to the CPF account they came from, never to your bank account. Below 55 that means the funds sit back in your OA (or SA) and keep earning the floor rate until you are eligible to withdraw CPF. From 55, you can withdraw CPFIS investments and OA or SA savings once you have set aside your retirement sum, either as cash on top of the Basic Retirement Sum, or as a mix of cash and a property pledge. The investments themselves can be sold for cash or, in some cases, transferred to you to hold outside CPF.
CPFIS works best for members under 55 with OA savings well above $20,000 that they will not need for a housing down payment soon, who understand investment risk, and who will invest in low-cost, diversified products and hold for the long run. For someone like that, putting a slice of idle OA into a broad equity ETF can reasonably aim to beat 2.5% over a decade or more.
It suits poorly anyone who might use the OA for property in the next few years, anyone uncomfortable seeing the balance drop, and anyone tempted to trade single stocks based on tips. For them, the OA at 2.5% guaranteed, or a voluntary top-up earning 4%, does the job with zero stress. If you are still building the basics, get an emergency fund and your insurance in place with cash first before reaching for CPF investing.
If you are 55 or above, no. The Special Account was closed for members aged 55 and above on 19 January 2025, so there is no SA to invest from. You can keep any existing CPFIS-SA investments until you sell or they mature, with proceeds going to your Retirement Account up to the Full Retirement Sum and the rest to your OA. Members below 55 still have an SA and can technically use CPFIS-SA, though most leave the SA to earn 4%.
The first $20,000 in your OA and the first $40,000 in your SA cannot be invested. Only amounts above those thresholds are your investible savings. Within investible OA savings, shares and property funds are capped at 35% and gold at 10%.
Sales charges on CPFIS unit trusts and ILPs are capped at 0% since 1 October 2020, and wrap account fees are capped at 0.4% per annum. You still pay each fund's own annual management fee, plus brokerage and account charges for shares. Total costs typically need your investments to return roughly 3.5% just to beat the 2.5% OA rate you gave up.
For most people historically it was not. Over 2013 to 2022, only about a quarter of CPFIS-OA investors beat the 2.5% OA rate and nearly 45% made losses. It can be worth it if you invest in low-cost, diversified products and hold through downturns, but the guaranteed 2.5% is a high bar to clear after fees.
No. Sale proceeds go back into your CPF account, not your bank account. CPFIS changes how your CPF savings are invested; it is not a way to withdraw CPF money before you are eligible.
It is a free, one-time online quiz on the CPF website that first-time CPFIS investors must pass before they can invest. It checks that you understand basic investment risk. Once completed, you do not need to retake it.
Topping up under the Retirement Sum Topping-Up scheme earns the guaranteed 4% on the receiving account and can give up to $8,000 of tax relief per year for top-ups to yourself. For many people that guaranteed return plus tax relief beats the risk of a CPFIS investment that may underperform 2.5%.
Not until you can withdraw your CPF. Below 55, selling a CPFIS holding returns the proceeds to your OA or SA, where they keep earning the floor rate. From 55, you can withdraw CPFIS investments and OA or SA savings once you have set aside your retirement sum, taken either as cash above the Basic Retirement Sum or as a mix of cash and a property pledge.
Quick. After you pass the Self-Awareness Questionnaire and open a CPF Investment Account with an agent bank, CPF generally processes the application within one working day, and the bank link for transferring investments is usually ready within one to two weeks. You can then start buying through your chosen platform or product provider.
For shares and ETFs bought through your CPF Investment Account, broker's commission runs 0.25% to 0.28% of the trade amount with a minimum of $25 per transaction, plus the agent bank's own per-counter service charge and a quarterly account fee. The three agent banks are DBS/POSB, OCBC and UOB; their exact service and account charges differ, so compare before opening an account.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.