From their email dated 26th August 2020:
From 1 September 2020 onwards, StashAway Simple™‘s projected rate will be 1.4% p.a.
Why it changed
As many of you know all too well, the world is facing uncertain economic times. To stimulate the economy, global central banks keep lowering interest rates. Although this is great news for people looking to borrow money, the lower interest rates also make it more difficult to earn rates on cash.
After continued analysis of the economy and central banks’ decisions, our investment team believes that interest rates likely won’t go back up for the foreseeable future, meaning the underlying funds will be earning less. Given the lower interest rates around the world, the projected rate that we expect StashAway Simple™ to deliver is 1.4% p.a., and that rate will be effective starting September 2020.
You may have noticed that the 1.9% p.a. wasn’t being earned by the funds alone recently.
So, instead of lowering the rate a few months ago when the funds weren’t performing as well, we added a rebate to bridge the difference between the projected rate and the actual rate. This is part of our promise of complete transparency to you: We haven’t, and we won’t, communicate a projected rate that we don’t expect to deliver. We also don’t offer a range that you might expect, because we simply aim to give you what we tell you.
Now, you might be asking, “Why doesn’t StashAway just invest in different funds to earn a better rate instead of now offering a lower rate?”
The answer is simple (no pun intended):
We fundamentally believe that cash management should simultaneously serve two equal purposes: First, it should keep your cash away from risk; and second, it should grow your cash. In other words, we don't believe in increasing your risk exposure just to grow your cash by a few more basis points, as that would compromise one of the two core principles of cash management. That’s why, for instance, StashAway Simple™ isn’t made up of Fixed Income funds with “variable NAV”, but only selects funds with “stable NAV” pricing. Anything with a floating NAV is not a suitable cash management option, but rather more suitable for medium and long-term investments.
You also might be asking, “Why doesn’t StashAway keep offering a rebate to maintain the 1.9% p.a.?”
Recently, the interest rates have become lower, meaning the rebate would have to be too large for us to sustain. While this product is free to you, we also don’t earn any money on this product. Any rebate we receive from the underlying fund managers is fully reimbursed to you.