The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

is the

statutory body A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being Primary and secondary legislation, empowered or deleg ...

charged with regulating the operations of

Mandatory Provident Fund The Mandatory Provident Fund (), often abbreviated as MPF (), is a compulsory saving scheme (pension fund) for the retirement of residents in Hong Kong. Most employees and their employers are required to contribute monthly to mandatory provident ...

(MPF) schemes and occupational retirement (ORSO) schemes. It is a regulator run independently of the

Government of Hong Kong The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the handover of Hong Kong. ...

History

On 3 August 1995, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (MPFSO)was established to provide the framework for the MPF system. On 17 September 1997, the MPFA was established as a statutory body under the MPFSO. On 1 December 2000, the MPF system came into effect.

Regulatory actions

In December 1998, the MPFA approved six sets of guidelines outlining criteria and licence application procedures for scheme service providers. They were the first batch of their kind to be issued by the MPFA. In March 2021, the MPFA announced that

British National (Overseas) passport The British National (Overseas) passport, commonly referred to as the BN(O) passport, is a British passport for people with British National (Overseas) status. BN(O) status was created in 1987 after the enactment of Hong Kong Act 1985, whose ...

s (BNO) could no longer be used as evidence for early withdrawal for MPF funds. In April 2023, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' (WSJ) wrote in an

opinion piece An opinion piece is an article, usually published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about a subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals. Editorials Opinion pieces may take the form of an editorial, ...

that it intended to coerce residents to stay Hong Kong and retaliate against anyone who leaves with a BNO passport by confiscating their property. Western finance firms were forced to abide by this confiscation to continue operating in Hong Kong. In response, the MPFA denounced WSJ's editorial as "false" and "misleading". On 26 June 2024, the MPFA launched the eMPF platform which was a digital platform that would consolidate the operations of all MPF operators into one single platform. In February 2025, the MPFA stated it would commence the second phase of reforms that would further enhance the eMPF platform. In May 2025, as part of the

United States federal government credit-rating downgrades Several credit rating agencies around the world have downgraded their credit ratings of the U.S. federal government, including Standard & Poor's (S&P) which reduced the country's rating from AAA (outstanding) to AA+ (excellent) on August 5, 2011. ...

Moody's Ratings Moody's Ratings, previously and still legally known as Moody's Investors Service and often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its histori ...

downgraded the US debt rating to Aa1 from Aaa. Hong Kong pension fund managers raised concern to the MPFA of potential forced selling on their US Treasury holdings due to them no longer meeting the required

credit rating A credit rating is an evaluation of the credit risk of a prospective debtor (an individual, a business, company or a government). It is the practice of predicting or forecasting the ability of a supposed debtor to pay back the debt or default. The ...

for investments. The only remaining approved AAA score came from Japan's Rating & Investment Information Inc. In response, the MPFA instructed MPF trustees and fund managers to prepare for a contingency plan in case the last remaining credit agency downgraded the US credit rating. The MPFA said such preparation would be needed as it had no plan to change the current investment requirements. In the same month, the MPFA stated that

private equity fund A private equity fund (abbreviated as PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity. ...

s listed in Hong Kong were permissible investments for MPF funds.

References

{{authority control Financial regulatory authorities of Hong Kong Government agencies established in 1998 Hong Kong government departments and agencies Pension regulation Statutory bodies in Hong Kong

History

Regulatory actions

See also

References