The Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) System came into operation on 1 December 2000. As the second pillar of the multi-pronged retirement protection framework of Hong Kong, the MPF System regulates mandatory, privately-managed and fully-funded contribution schemes. Employees, employers and self-employed persons who are covered by the MPF System are each required to make regular mandatory contributions to an MPF scheme calculated at 5% of the relevant income of the employee / self-employed persons, subject to the statutory minimum and maximum relevant income levels which stand at $7,100 and $30,000 respectively for monthly paid employees.
Currently, there are 13 MPF trustees offering 27 MPF schemes to about 4.5 million scheme members and 330 000 participating employers. The aggregate net asset value of all MPF schemes exceeds $1,100 billion, with an annualized internal rate of return (net of fees) of 3.7% since the establishment of the MPF System 20 years ago.
Over the past years, the Government and the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (“MPFA”) have implemented multi-faceted initiatives to enhance the MPF System by improving transparency and reducing fees of MPF funds. Further to the introduction of low fee funds in 2012, the fee-controlled Default Investment Strategy in 2017, and the one-stop MPF Fund Platform in 2019, the Government and the MPFA are pressing ahead with the development of the eMPF Platform.
As a major reform initiative of the MPF system since its inception in 2000, the eMPF Platform is a common electronic platform that will streamline, standardize and automate the current MPF scheme administration processes through digital and innovative solutions, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and creating room for fee reduction. The eMPF Platform also has the benefits of bringing to users a quicker, simpler, better and predominantly paperless MPF experience, and will re-shape the operating landscape and ecosystem of the MPF System. The possible cost savings achievable by the eMPF Platform are estimated to be in a range of $30-$40 billion over a 10-year period after implementation of the eMPF Platform.
Our target is to complete the development work of the eMPF Platform at the earliest to enable sequential and orderly onboarding of MPF trustees and their schemes to the eMPF Platform starting from the first half of 2024 for full implementation of the Platform in 2025.
For more information, please visit the following websites/linked documents:
Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority
https://www.mpfa.org.hk/en
MPF Fund Platform
https://mfp.mpfa.org.hk/eng/mpp_index.jsp
Papers on eMPF Platform submitted to the Panel on Financial Affairs of the Legislative Council
December 2018
December 2019
June 2020
January 2021
March 2022
March 2023
Recent Legislative Council Questions and Replies
16 February 2022
11 May 2022 (1)
11 May 2022 (2)
11 May 2022 (3)
1 June 2022
2 November 2022
23 November 2022
15 March 2023
22 March 2023