Hong Kong pension fund regulator said on Monday that it is dedicated to refining the Mandatory Provident Fund system and will carefully evaluate different suggestions to protect members' interests, following a call from the Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies to invest more in Hong Kong-listed exchange-traded funds.
The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority welcomes advice from the industry on enhancing the MPF system and will maintain dialogue with various stakeholders, it said.
The MPF system adopts a collective investment scheme framework, pooling contributions from scheme members to form a larger asset base, the regulator said, adding that this enables members to invest in diversified regulated financial products cost-effectively through their chosen MPF funds regardless of their contribution size, balancing risk and return.
Given that approval criteria for constituent funds within an MPF scheme consider factors including volatility and investment diversification, the regulatory framework helps safeguard members' interests by lowering investment risk, thereby achieving the goal of assisting the workforce in accumulating basic retirement savings, according to MPFA.
MPFA noted that it prioritized members' interests and is committed to driving down costs through multiple ways, involving facilitating the use of suitable ETFs as low-fee investment options for direct selection by members, as well as including suitable ETFs within the MPF scheme to efficiently achieve diversification by allocating assets to specific markets or sectors.
