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The Management Board of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) met today (March 1, 2001) to review status reports on MPF implementation and schemes administration. The Board noted that there will be teething problems at this early stage, and the MPFA will work closely with the industry to iron out these issues.

The Hon. Mr. Charles Lee Yeh-kwong, chairman of the MPFA, pointed out that the community will take time to fully get used to the MPF System, which is brand-new to Hong Kong and involves a wide cross-section of the community. He stressed that the problems are of a technical and administrative nature.

Between December 1, 2000 when the System was first implemented, and February 28, 2001, the MPFA has received 165 complaints regarding schemes administration. Most of the complainants were dissatisfied with busy hotlines, failure to provide updated information on enrollment or contribution, failure to provide instruction for contribution arrangements, inadequate support or unsatisfactory intermediary services.

Mr. Lee remarked that when compared with a total of two million scheme members, the ratio of complaints against schemes administration was less than one in 10,000 members.

Despite the relatively low figures, the MPFA takes each complaint seriously and will continue to place strong emphasis in areas of service supervision and member protection. Trustees have been asked to devote more resources to further improving after-sales services.

At the meeting, members were informed that the trustees were in general well prepared for the influx of contributions during the first contribution deadline of February 10, 2001, and the MPFA was satisfied with the industry’s overall ability to deal with the administrative and settlement aspects.

“The industry will need to step up its work in the months ahead, in preparation for technical issues resulting from more employees changing jobs and switching fund products. The huge preparatory work put in by the MPFA and the industry so far had been resources well invested. The present priority is to iron out the teething problems as quickly as possible,” Mr. Lee added.

– Ends –

1 March 2001