CRC Protective Life, the insurance arm of China Resources, has formed an alliance with Citibank and Salomon Smith Barney to handle its proposed Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) business. Citibank is to be the custodian of the CRC Protective Life's MPF schemes while Salomon Smith Barney will run its asset-management operations. CRC chief executive Elroy Chan Siu-yuen said: 'The alliance with other financial institutions and expansion of sales force will enable us to be a major player in the proposed MPF market.' Ahead of the MPF launch in December next year, CRC Protective Life Insurance plans to triple its agents selling the SAR retirement scheme products. This will boost its agency force from 1,200 to 3,500 by the end of next year. 'We hope to make the MPF our core business,' said Mr Chan. 'After the launch of MPF schemes next December, we expect premium income earned from MPF business to be more than double that from individual life policies,' he said. CRC Protective Trustee president Tay Keng-puang said the insurer was aiming to secure a 10 per cent share of the MPF market. Under the alliance, CRC Protective Life will be responsible for designing and distributing MPF products. The alliance is the latest in a series formed by insurance companies and banks to conduct MPF business. Last week, Bank of China Group and British-based insurance giant Prudential had set up two joint ventures to carry out the MPF business. Within the same week, one of the largest US pension providers, Principal Insurance, formed separate alliances with Citibank and Kwong On bank to provide administration services for the two banks' MPF schemes. Mr Tay said more alliances would be created among the MPF services providers as the competition of the proposed MPF market would be so fierce. Twenty-one companies have been approved as MPF trustees, but each claim a target market share of about 10 per cent. Big local player HSBC says it is aiming to take 40 per cent of the market. 'The MPF market is very competitive,' he said. 'We need to seek more partners to enhance our competitiveness.' Besides agreements with Citibank and Salomon Smith Barney, the insurer has entered into talks with other potential partners to help sell its MPF products. The MPF requires 300,000 local companies not already operating a pension scheme to establish an MPF plan to ensure full coverage for Hong Kong's 2.2 million workers. MPF