EMPF Platform: Hong Kong to migrate smallest pension firms first, with giants like HSBC to bring up the rear by end-2025, regulator says

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A detailed timeline of the eMPF Platform, the largest-ever reform of Hong Kong’s compulsory pension scheme, was unveiled before the city’s Legislative Council on Monday

The platform will save costs and standardise the administration of pension schemes, MPFA Chairwoman Ayesha Macpherson Lau tells council

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Hong Kong’s Central business district. While YF Life and China Life are Hong Kong’s smallest MPF providers, Manulife and HSBC are the two largest. Photo: Jelly Tse

Enoch Yiu

Published: 6:40pm, 18 Mar 2024

YF Life Trustees, the smallest of Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) providers, will be the first to migrate to the soon-to-be-launched eMPF Platform, while HSBC, the largest provider, will be the last, according to a detailed timeline announced by the pensions regulator on Monday.

The eMPF Platform is the largest-ever reform of the compulsory pension scheme, which was launched in 2000. It will replace the separate systems currently in use, allowing the 12 MPF providers or trustees, 357,000 employers and 4.75 million members to manage MPF assets – worth HK$1.14 trillion (US$146.15 billion) as of the end of December – through a single platform.

YF Life will move to the new platform in June as part of an 18-month process that will conclude with HSBC joining towards the end of 2025.

“The migration will be made in the order of smaller players to the biggest ones, so as to allow the system to run in a smooth manner,” Ayesha Macpherson Lau, chairwoman of pensions regulator Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA), told a meeting of the financial affairs panel of the Legislative Council, during which she unveiled the timeline to lawmakers.

“It is better to allow providers with a small number of members to try the system to gain some experience, before the massive number of members from bigger players are added in.”

YF Life will be followed by China Life in July. The pair are Hong Kong’s smallest MPF providers, with a market share of 0.8 per cent and HK$9 billion in MPF assets under management.

The eMPF Company will monitor the platform’s cybersecurity system and set up backup data centres to make sure that MPF schemes are not affected by the data migration, MPFA Chairwoman Ayesha Macpherson Lau says. Photo: Jonathan Wong