Tag: SIBOR

  • S$ to appreciate

    MAS has just announced it will “increase the slope of its policy band slightly for a modest and gradual appreciation of the Singapore dollar”. Two days before the announcement, the USD/SGD rate already started to decline from the recent high of 1.26. This bodes well for home loan rates, where SOR has already fallen below…

  • Libor rigged

    The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) came into the limelight recently. As mentioned in the news articles, the US Dollar Libor affects the cost of borrowing $10 trillion worth of loan and another $350 trillion in derivatives.

  • SOR soars above 0.5%

    SOR rises above 0.5% for the first time since June 2010, as the USD/SGD moves close to 1.3 again and LIBOR hit 0.54% on its continued steep incline, while SIBOR remains muted at 0.38%. The massive flight-to-safety from the Eurozone’s trouble pushes the US dollar higher as investors piled into Treasuries. This, the result of…

  • Rate cuts on the horizon

    The 3-Month SIBOR has dropped a notch from 0.44% to 0.31%, bringing it lower than SOR once again. SIBOR-pegged loans are now more attractive than SOR-pegged ones. This is also partly due to the absence of SOR-pegged loans currently being offered. Banks probably withdrew them after being spooked by the negative SOR back in August.

  • SOR surpassed SIBOR for first time in more than 2 years

    The last time SOR and SIBOR crossed path was way back in May 2009. That was when SOR fell below SIBOR and remained so for more than 2 years. The recent sharp increase in USD/SGD exchange rates (from 1.2 to 1.3 in 3 weeks) took SOR from -0.1 to 0.35 over the same period. It…

  • Sibor-pegged loan doing good too

    This just in, my other SIBOR pegged home loan has dropped by about 0.09%, corresponding to the fall in the 3-month SIBOR. This again results in some savings in my monthly instalment, not a lot , but any amount is welcome.

  • World’s End Close

    World’s End Close, Edinburgh The events in the past week may be telling us that we could be one step closer to the end of the world. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but these were significant events. US just lost its AAA rating for the first time. That means a loss of confidence…

  • SOR landed in all-time-low territory again

    With the US bent on devaluating the USD and MAS allowing the SGD to appreciate, SOR was driven into its all-time-low territory again, coming in at 0.247% on 3 Nov 2010. Moreover, the Feds initiated a fresh round of measures to spur the US economy, keeping rates at 0-0.25% for an “extended period” and launching…

  • Cheaper home loans makes the news

    News about home loan rates appear in the newspaper very sparingly, and this just happened last Saturday, showing up in the Straits Times with the headline “Cheaper home loans in store”. In a gist, the article says that “KEY interest rates that determine mortgage levels have fallen steeply, promising cheaper home loans but even leaner…

  • SOR/SIBOR pegged loan exit strategy

    I have mentioned in my previous post that those of us who have taken up a SOR or SIBOR pegged loan may find ourselves at risk of having to pay a 1.5% penalty when doing a full redemption not on the rate repricing date.