Child Development Accounts under Standard Chartered Bank to close by end 2018
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Child Development Accounts for children younger than 12 years old under Standard Chartered Bank will close by Oct 31.
PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER
Charmaine Ng
SINGAPORE - Parents who hold Child Development Accounts for their children younger than 12 years old under Standard Chartered Bank will need to change the accounts to other banks by the end of the year.
At the end of the year, these accounts will close, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) in a statement on Wednesday (Jan 31).
Parents can change their child's account to any of their preferred banks appointed by the MSF using the Baby Bonus Online Portal (www.babybonus.msf.gov.sg).
The appointed banks are DBS Bank, United Overseas Bank, and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation.
If changes are not made by Oct 31, the MSF will automatically assign the account to one of the banks, said the ministry in its statement.
About 22,500 accounts managed by Standard Chartered will be affected, said MSF.
Parents whose children who are turning 12 this year will not be affected by the closure, as their children's accounts will remain under Standard Chartered until end-2018.
The account will then be automatically closed and any funds remaining will be transferred to the children's Post-Secondary Education Account under the Ministry of Education in January next year, when they turn 13.
Affected parents and trustees of the Standard Chartered accounts will receive a letter from the MSF in February reminding them of the change.
In 2015, the ministry announced that Standard Chartered would no longer accept new Child Development Account applications.
Correction note: In a previous version of this story, we said the Child Development Accounts will close by Oct 31. This is incorrect. The accounts will close at the end of year. We are sorry for the error.
