Revised Unsecured Credit Rules by MAS

Due to MAS regulations on Balance-To-Income (BTI) ratio, your unsecured credit facilities limit cannot exceed 12 times of your monthly income. Read on to find out more.

If your total interest-bearing outstanding on all credit cards and unsecured credit facilities with all Financial Institution (FI) in Singapore exceed the industry-wide borrowing limit for 3 consecutive months, your account will be suspended and you will not be able to:

Charge new amounts to your existing credit card(s) and/or use other unsecured credit facilities with all financial institutions;
Obtain credit limit increases on your existing credit card(s) and/or other unsecured credit facilities with all financial institutions;
Apply new credit cards or other unsecured credit facilities from all financial institutions.

Account Suspended	Account Not Suspended
Reactivate your suspended credit facilities with your updated income documents.	Arrange to settle or reduce your outstanding balances immediately. (Applicable to unsecured credit lines with DBS and/or other banks in Singapore) Submit your latest income documents to the bank for review.

What are the documents required?

For Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents
Salaried Employee	Salary Crediting into DBS/POSB Account¹; or Latest Computerised Payslip; or Latest 12 months’ CPF contribution History Statement²; or Latest Income Tax Notice of Assessment3 with (B) or (C)
Variable/ Commission-based Employees	Latest 12 months’ CPF contribution History Statement²; or Latest Income Tax Notice of Assessment³
Self-Employed	Latest 2 years’ Income Tax Notice of Assessment³

For Foreigners
Employment Pass with at least 6 months validity; and Latest Computerised Payslip; or Company Letter certifying Employment and Salary (in Singapore dollar currency), dated within 3 months from the date of credit card application. Latest Income Tax Notice of Assessment3 with (A) or (B)

Note :

¹ Your salary must be credited via GIRO, to your own DBS/POSB Account for the last 3 consecutive months and your current annual income meets our minimum income criteria. Salary credited into joint account will not be considered.
² Please note that your CPF documents submitted online with Singpass is only available for up to 7 days from the date of your submission.
³ You can now download your Income Tax Income Notice of Assessment at myTax Portal with your Singpass or IRAS Pin. The service is free. Log on to https://mytax.iras.gov.sg for more details.

What is the Borrowing Limit?

The industry-wide borrowing limit took effect on 1 June 2015 and it is progressively lowered over 4 years.

24 times of your monthly income from 1 June 2015;
18 times of monthly income from 1 June 2017; and
12 times of monthly income from 1 June 2019.

Note :

Your limit is computed by taking your aggregate interest-bearing unsecured outstanding balance across all FIs, divided by monthly income. To find out more on the computation, please refer to the below frequently asked questions.