The Board of Commissioners of Currency Singapore (BCCS) was established on 7 April 1967 with the enactment of the Currency Act, and it continued the “currency board” system that had been in operation since British colonial times.[1] Then Finance Minister Lim Kim San was appointed the first chairman of the board. The new Singapore dollar, which was issued by the board in June 1967, was fully convertible to a foreign currency at a fixed exchange rate and also fully backed by foreign assets or gold.[2]
By 1973, the collapse of the Bretton Woods Agreement, which was an international monetary system based on fixed exchange rates, subsequently resulted in the Singapore dollar being floated. The Currency Act was amended in 1982 to repeal the use of officially declared rates for the conversion of foreign currencies into Singapore dollars.[3] Despite its diminished role in managing the external value of the Singapore dollar, the BCCS maintained its core responsibility of issuing Singapore currency and notes until it merged with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on 1 October 2002.[4]
References
1. Republic of Singapore. Government Gazette. Acts Supplement. (1967, March 23). Currency Act 1967 (No. 5 of 1967, p. 121). Singapore: [s.n.]. Call no.: RCLOS 348.5957 SGGAS; Singapore. Board of Commissioners of Currency. (1997). Currency board system: A stop-gap measure or a necessity. In Currency Board System Symposium (pp. 12–21). Singapore: The Board. Call no.: RSING 332.495957 CUR; The Singapore Mint. (2013). Singapore Currency Evolution. Retrieved September 12, 2013, from The Singapore Mint website: http://www.singaporemint.com/fact_sgcurrency.php
2. President names board to issue new S’pore dollar. (1967, May 19). The Straits Times, p. 4; S'pore parliament passes currency bill. (1967, March 14). The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
3. Soh, T. K. (1973, March 21). S'pore enters era of floating rates. The Straits Times, p. 13; Singapore float. (1973, June 21). The Straits Times, p. 12; Bringing it in line with reality. (1982, March 27). The Straits Times, p. 18. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Soh, D. (1990). From cowries to credit cards: Stories of Singapore's money (pp. 29, 32). Singapore: Federal Publications. Call no.: RSING 332.495957 SOH.
4. Currency board's merger with MAS takes effect today. (2002, October 1). The Straits Times, p. 19. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
The information in this article is valid as at 2014 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.