How to choose the right Money Market Fund for your business

What is a money market fund for business

A money market fund (MMF) is a low-risk, highly liquid unit trust (mutual fund) that invests in short-term, high-quality debt instruments. These funds give businesses a liquid way to invest surplus cash in short-term instruments while seeking a return.

Money market funds share a classification, not a portfolio. Two funds with the same label can differ materially in what they hold, how fast they return your cash, what they charge, and how much credit risk sits underneath.

Benefits and risks of money market funds

How to evaluate money market funds for business

For corporate treasurers, selecting a money market fund (MMF) comes down to protecting principal, ensuring liquidity, and optimising risk-adjusted returns. That's the order this framework applies to business cash, because reserve cash is usually needed sooner than a treasury expects:

1. Capital preservation

Everything else here is a trade-off. This one isn't, because cash that loses value has failed at the only job you gave it.

Here's what to assess:

• Credit quality of the underlying assets
• Exposure split across government securities, bank deposits, and corporate issuers
• Historical NAV stability, including any past volatility

A higher yield usually signals higher credit or duration risk, which rarely suits core treasury cash. Some SGD funds hold only fixed deposits and treasury bills; others hold corporate bonds, which carry credit risk and push NAV around more.

2. Liquidity profile and redemption speed

A fund paying 20 basis points more is worthless if the money lands two days after your supplier invoice falls due.

Key factors to consider:

• Settlement cycle, T+0 or T+1
• Redemption terms, including any gating language in the prospectus
• Daily and weekly liquidity buffers

Use same-day or T+1 liquidity funds for operating cash. Assess gating risk from the fund's own disclosures rather than its size: liquidity buffers, redemption terms in the prospectus, the underlying assets, investor concentration, and whether the manager has used liquidity-management measures before.

3. Portfolio composition and transparency

Two funds carrying the same label often hold very different books, and this is the check that separates them.

Here's what to assess:

• Split between deposits and securities
• Split between sovereign and corporate issuers
• Top issuers and concentration risk
• Geographic exposure

For treasury cash, compare a fund's exposure across government securities, bank deposits, and corporate credit, then judge whether the extra yield from corporate issuers compensates for the additional credit risk they carry. Lower credit risk is not the same as none.

4. Duration and interest rate risk

Rate sensitivity here is low but not absent, and the regulator puts hard limits around it. Two metrics tell you where a fund sits:

• Weighted average maturity averages each holding's time to maturity, counting floating-rate instruments to their next rate reset rather than final maturity, which helps you assess how the NAV responds to rate moves
• Weighted average life averages each holding's time to final maturity with resets ignored, which helps you assess how long the fund stays exposed to each issuer

Shorter duration means a steadier NAV. Longer duration buys a little more yield and a little more movement.

Under the MAS Code on Collective Investment Schemes , short-term money market funds sold to retail investors in Singapore keep dollar-weighted average portfolio maturity inside 60 days, and hold at least 10% of net asset value in daily maturing assets and 20% in weekly maturing assets.

5. Yield, but risk-adjusted

Start with the fund's risk and liquidity profile, then compare the yield you're getting for that risk.

Here's what to compare:

• Net yield after every fee, fund level and platform level
• Yield consistency rather than a single headline rate
• The source of the yield, credit risk or duration positioning

Money market funds for business aren't guaranteed, and today's SGD comparators sit close on the headline. The 6-month Singapore T-bill issued on 15th Sep 2026 cut off at 1.7%, per MAS.

Fixed deposits look close until you check the business rates. DBS pays 0.88% p.a. on a 6-month corporate fixed deposit and 1.08% on 12 months, as at 18th Sep 2026, flat whether you place SGD $5,000 or SGD $10 million. Deposit insurance covers SGD $100,000 per depositor per bank, so most of a treasury balance sits outside it.

6. MAS regulation and investor safeguards

Singapore's rules do much of the risk work for you, which is why it's worth knowing where they stop.

Retail money market funds in Singapore sit under the MAS Code on Collective Investment Schemes, which sets requirements on credit quality, maturity, diversification, and permissible instruments. Underlying instruments meet minimum short-term rating thresholds, typically F-2 from Fitch or A-2 from S&P or equivalent.

One line is worth internalising: money market funds for business carry no SDIC cover. Deposit insurance applies to bank deposits, not investment products. Fund assets sit with an independent trustee, segregated from the manager's balance sheet , which protects you if the manager fails but says nothing about your units' value.

7. Fund manager strength and track record

A fund is only as steady as the desk running it, and a desk proves itself only when markets stop behaving.

Here's what to assess:

• Experience running liquidity funds
• Credit research capability
• Assets under management
• Performance through stress periods

The Fullerton SGD Cash Fund has run since Feb 2009, through a near-zero rate environment, two hiking cycles, and the COVID liquidity squeeze.

8. Operational fit

This is the check most treasurers underrate, because it's the only cost that lands on a timesheet rather than a fact sheet.

Here's what to assess:

• Cut-off times for subscription and redemption
• Ease of execution, including whether it sits in a platform you already use
• Reporting, including daily NAV and statements
• Minimum investment size

Put numbers on it. As an illustrative example, on SGD $500,000 of reserve cash the gap between a 0.13% and a 0.21% expense ratio is SGD $400 a year. Assume one extra hour of finance-team time each month-end at SGD $60 an hour and that's SGD $720. On those assumptions, the cheaper fund on paper loses on the way it's run.

Best money market funds in Singapore, compared

Here are three large SGD funds through those eight checks and the differences show up fast. They look almost identical on yield, then separate on size, cost, and what sits underneath. Here's how they compare.

Note: The above numbers are reported as of 10th Sep 2026.

Remember, the best return doesn't make a fund the right place for cash you might need next week.

A 4-question framework for choosing a money market fund

At Aspire, every shortlisted fund goes through the same four questions, in order:

• Is my principal safe, given the credit quality and structure?
• Can I access my cash on the day I need it?
• Does it fit operationally, from execution through to reporting?
• What is the risk-adjusted yield, net of every fee?

Answer them in that sequence and the shortlist usually writes itself.

When a money market fund may not be the right fit

An MMF suits cash you can leave alone for weeks but might need back quickly. It's a poor fit at both ends of that range.

How to choose the right money market fund for your business

There isn't one money market fund that fits every business. A business with frequent cash outflows has different requirements from one holding longer-term surplus cash. A business with lumpy payroll and a 3-day collection cycle needs something different from one sitting on reserves it won't touch until next year.

The practical answer is to pick the fund that returns your money on the day you need it, holds assets you'd happily explain to your board, and doesn't add a step to your month-end.

Businesses split operating cash from surplus anyway, and the hard part is holding both without a second platform, which is why Aspire Yield sits inside the Aspire business account rather than beside it. SGD balances go into the Fullerton SGD Cash Fund Class A. There's no minimum investment, and redemption requests submitted before 4 pm SGT on a business day land in your business account the next business day, for both SGD and USD.

As of 12th Sep 2026, Yield was returning 1.19% on SGD and 3.46% on USD, both measured on 7-day performance and before Aspire's service fee. Aspire takes 0.5% a year on the average daily net asset value. Check the cut-off timings and eligibility. Run the eight checks first and read the yield table second.