Hong Kong lawmakers support MPF change to make accounts fully portable
Hong Kong lawmakers expressed support for allowing 'full portability' in the city's
Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) , which would allow members to move their entire pension balance to a different provider once a year.
Legislative Council panel meeting discussed a legal change on Monday that would implement full portability next year. Currently, members can move their own contributions, but not those made by their employer, once a year. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu unveiled the proposed change in his policy address in October.
The change would 'give more choice to employees, while also adding to competition in the industry', said lawmaker Robert Lee Wai-wang, who is also the chairman of Hong Kong-based Grand Finance Group.
'The full-portability reform aims to encourage employees to proactively manage their MPF investments and promote market competition, thereby creating room for fee reductions,' said Sharon Ko Yee-wai, deputy secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, during the council's financial affairs panel.
Established in 2000, the MPF is a compulsory retirement scheme that requires employers and employees to each pay 5 per cent of the salary, up to a combined HK$3,000 (US$385) a month, into an investment account managed by one of 12 MPF providers. At the end of March, the scheme covered 4.75 million members and had
total assets of HK$1.338 trillion
Only employers could choose the MPF provider until 2012, when the Employee Choice Arrangement was introduced. Commonly known as 'semi-portability', this allows employees to transfer their own contributions – but not those made by their employers – to a new provider once a year.
Employees conducted about 1 million transactions involving HK$50 billion under the semi-portability regime from its launch up to April of this year, Ko said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Privilege or merit? Harvard speech ignites China debate on elite education access
Emotional remarks by a Chinese student who delivered this year's Harvard University commencement speech have sparked a debate in China about barriers to elite education. Advertisement The speech by Yurong 'Luanna' Jiang, the first Chinese woman chosen as Harvard's student commencement speaker, called for global unity amid US President Donald Trump's plan to 'aggressively' revoke Chinese student visas Internet users have since raised questions about a lack of access for many ordinary students who have struggled to be considered for prestigious universities, citing an uneven distribution of financial and educational resources. While some praised her message of 'a shared humanity', which echoed Beijing's diplomatic vision of 'a community with a shared future for mankind', others criticised her 'privileged' background and questioned whether she truly represented the broader Chinese student population. According to Harvard Magazine, Jiang, originally from Qingdao in eastern China, attended high school in the United Kingdom . She completed her undergraduate degree at Duke University before enrolling at the Harvard Kennedy School for a master's degree. Advertisement Internet users also questioned her volunteer experience in the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation – where her father reportedly worked as a director, and which played a role in securing a recommendation letter for her Harvard application in 2022.
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Triangular diplomacy a tricky tightrope to walk for Asia-Pacific leaders
Middle and major powers are using trade, investment and technology as weapons of influence in pursuit of triangular diplomacy, a stratagem of Cold War realpolitik. However, the strengths of this approach – agility, ambiguity and tactical scope – hide the dangers of entanglements that escalate instability. A nation triangulates by balancing and manoeuvring between two other powers , building leverage, reducing dependency and becoming indispensable to multiple sides without fully committing to any. Triangular diplomacy is now a prominent approach for leaders negotiating a world where post-war institutions are in decline, autarkic capitalism is emerging, military budgets are soaring and multilateral commitments are being reassessed by US President Donald Trump. President Richard Nixon's emissary, Henry Kissinger , orchestrated this statecraft in the 1970s by using the Sino-Soviet rivalry to bolster America's power. He fostered closer ties with Beijing and Moscow individually as he kept both unsure of Washington's commitment to either.
South China Morning Post
5 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Shangri-La Dialogue a place to ease tensions, not inflame China threat
The Shangri-La Dialogue, held annually in Singapore, has long provided a useful platform for discussion of Asia's security issues. Advertisement But the United States used the region's premier security conference last weekend to launch a provocative attack on China, a move that fanned flames, rather than easing concerns. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth accused China of wanting to 'fundamentally alter the region's status quo'. The threat, he said, was 'real' and 'could be imminent'. He referred to the South China Sea and Taiwan. Hegseth urged US partners and allies to join it in countering what he described as China's aggression. Beijing could not let the strongly worded allegations go unanswered. Hu Gangfeng, a People's Liberation Army major general, dismissed them as 'groundless'. Advertisement Hegseth's comments, Hu said, aimed to stir up trouble and incite confrontation, destabilising the region. China's defence and foreign ministries issued statements condemning the US accusations.
