PENSION funds - the staple of most family retirement plans - have been dragged into the battle between the Government and market speculators as a clampdown on stock lending has put heat on managers of pension funds and mutual funds.
Stock lending - a fee-earning business for many fund managers and custodians - has come under fire as providing the liquidity speculators need to sell down the local market.
Hong Kong's future pensioners have been alarmed to learn that fund managers might have been using their pensions in this way.
An anonymous group of investors recently took out advertisements in several Chinese-language newspapers asking fund managers to refrain from stock lending.
Others phoned fund managers asking for confirmation of guidelines restricting or prohibiting the practice of stock lending.
The Investment Funds Association (IFA) has launched a survey of its members to find the prevalence of the practice.
