Alice Law to oversee MPF – Hong Kong’s compulsory retirement plan – from July 1

Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, which regulates the city’s compulsory pension scheme, has promoted Alice Law Shing-mui as managing director for a three-year term, replacing Diana Chan Tong Chee-ching from July 1.

Law, who has been the chief operating and executive director since July 2012, formulated public policy and financial regulation, as well as implemented reform measures to enhance the MPF system.

“I am confident that she will be able to lead the MPFA in meeting the challenges ahead and in continuing to refine the MPF system,” said chairman David Wong.

Chan joined MPFA in 2000, and was the executive director of corporate services and chief operating officer of corporate affairs before being appointed managing director in July 2004.

A major reform to the retirement savings scheme was the offering of a new “default investment option” along with other initiatives in 2016, that reduced the average handling fees of all MPF schemes.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government has been proposing a controversial MPF offsetting mechanism that lets employers take cash from the pot to offset long-service or severance payments to workers.

The government hopes the proposed bill will pass by 2020 and come into effect by 2022.

But business and labour leaders remain unconvinced after several unsuccessful attempts to remove the mechanism despite assurances from government officials that they have considered the affordability of the plan.

In February, the 481 funds that invest in the MPF reported its first monthly loss in over a year by an average of 2.94 per cent, according to data by Thomson Reuters Lipper, apparently falling alongside a correction in global markets.

The retirement scheme had HK$843.5 billion in assets last year, which covers 2.8 million people in the city. The plan is forecast to reach HK$1 trillion (US$127.4 billion) by 2020, according to the Pension Schemes Association, an industry body for MPF providers.