FROM Oct 1, all data on the Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (Sibor) or ABS Swap Offer Rate (SOR) will each be subject to a monthly usage fee of US$1,500 (S$2,016), the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) said in a statement yesterday.

In addition, subscribers who receive real-time Sibor or SOR data from a market data vendor will be required to pay end-user fees of US$5 a month for each set of data.

But data delayed by 24 hours or more will be available for free to end-users.

Explaining the new charges, ABS director Ong-Ang Ai Boon, in the statement, said: "There is increasing work, oversight and investment needed to strengthen the robustness, transparency and efficiency of the benchmark contribution process in Singapore.

"We will continue to ensure that the governance processes of our benchmarks remain robust and acceptable to all market participants."

End-user fees are for each user to view the benchmarks, typically on a computer terminal, while usage fees are based on the subscriber's site location and covers the use of the benchmark in valuation and pricing activities.

Fees will also apply to any party that redistributes the Sibor or SOR benchmarks, for example, on a website.

This will cost US$5,000 monthly for real-time data and US$2,000 monthly for delayed data.

Banks on the Sibor-setting panel will be exempt from the new usage and end-user fees, ABS said.