Intense competition among Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) providers will significantly reduce the number of market participants, according to a senior asset manager.
Blair Pickerell, managing director at Jardine Fleming Asset Management, said the next 10 months would be crucial for the SAR's 28 MPF providers as they attempted to grab a share of the market.
'There will be three to five major players and a few hangers on,' he said.
According to Mr Pickerell, the SAR's population is not big enough to support that many fund providers so larger providers will inevitably absorb the clients of smaller providers who are forced out of the industry.
'Hong Kong is really just a town,' Mr Pickerell added.
Jardine Fleming Unit Trusts MPF general manager Michael Yuen Tak-cheung said the company's alliance with life insurer American International Assurance would combine the two company's fields of expertise to enable them to offer a 'hassle free' pension product.