The change would “give more choice to employees, while also adding to competition in the industry”, said lawmaker Robert Lee Wai-wang, who is also the chairman of Hong Kong-based Grand Finance Group.
“The full-portability reform aims to encourage employees to proactively manage their MPF investments and promote market competition, thereby creating room for fee reductions,” said Sharon Ko Yee-wai, deputy secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, during the financial affairs panel discussion.
Only employers could choose the MPF provider until 2012, when the Employee Choice Arrangement was introduced. Commonly known as “semi-portability”, this allows employees to transfer their own contributions – but not those made by their employers – to a new provider once a year.
Employees conducted about 1 million transactions involving HK$50 billion under the semi-portability regime from its launch up to April of this year, Ko said.
