MPF looks to go digital
More consolidation likely, authority chairman says
Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) retirement savings scheme is looking to go electronic to cut administration costs and speed up service delivery, Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) chairman David Wong Yau-kar said.
“We are now studying how to have eMPF, using more digital and electronic methods to manage the pension system,” he said. “This would increase the transparency of the scheme, cut operating costs and boost efficiency.”
Launched in 2000, the MPF covers 2.5 million employees and 300,000 self-employed people.
But while many people use the internet and mobile phones to handle their bank accounts, the MPF scheme still involves the use of a lot of paper forms and many employers and employees still use manual methods to check accounts and transfer money. The 15 MPF providers handle some 200,000 paper documents related to the scheme every day.
I do not think we would need to put a cap on all types of MPF funds
Wong said eMPF would allow members of the scheme to easily check their account information via their computers or mobile phones.