MPF digital platform on course to save workers $40b

The Mandatory Provident Funds Schemes Authority’s digital platform will be released, as scheduled, in the second quarter.

Five relatively small trustees will transfer accounts to the platform, for which the target for full operations is the fourth quarter of 2025.

The MPFA will try to make sure the transfer process is safe and easy to operate for the public, and members will save on some administrative fees after they join eMPF, managing director Cheng Yan-chee says.

The MPFA believes that when the platform is put into service, the system will be revitalized, and the public can handle accounts on it without having to deal with different accounts separately, as at present.

In the first two years of operation, it predicts, administrative fees will be reduced by an average of 30 percent, resulting in a cumulative savings of HK$30 billion to HK$40 billion within 10 years, equivalent to 41 to 55 percent of original administrative fees.

Since its implementation in 2000 to the end of last year, the annual net return rate has been 2.5 percent. Equity funds and mixed asset funds, which account for nearly 80 percent of the total MPF asset value, have both seen an annual net return rate of 3.7 percent, higher than the average inflation rate of 1.8 percent.

As for the “default investment arrangement” – known as the “fund for the lazy” on account of its application to any type of new account set up on or after April 1, 2017, when no or invalid investment instructions are given by members – hasn’t lost money for nearly seven years since its launch.

As of December, the average annual net return rate of its core cumulative fund has hit 5.5 percent. Around 30 percent of members are in the DIS category, and the number of people under the age of 45 is higher.

Hong Kong has secured the right to host the International Organization of Pension Regulators’ annual meeting and working conference in October-November 2026.

In conjunction with the OECD, it will organize the 2026 Private Pension Global Forum, which will bring in representatives from 80 countries and regions, and is set to attract thousands of participants.