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The MPFA today (11 August) published its Annual Report 2021-22, covering the MPFA's work in the year under review, the latest developments and strategic direction of the MPF System, and its financial report.

MPFA Chairman Mrs Ayesha Macpherson Lau said in her latest blog post (in Chinese only) published today, “This is my first annual report since I assumed office. It is far more than just a transcript summarizing the work of the MPFA in the past year. With the theme ‘Together We Grow’, it is indeed a testament to the growth of the MPF System, allowing the public to witness the results of various reforms of the MPF System, the MPFA’s determination to protect the retirement benefits of the working population and the blueprint for its future work plan, while reflecting the diverse work of the MPFA.”   

Mrs Lau mentioned that the MPFA had made continuous efforts to expand the MPF investment universe. During the past year, the Legislative Council approved the legislative amendments proposed by the Government and the MPFA to facilitate MPF investment in bonds issued by the Central People’s Government, the People’s Bank of China, and Mainland policy banks to provide diversified investment opportunities for scheme members.

Moreover, the MPFA has spared no effort in protecting scheme members’ interests and has a zero-tolerance policy towards non-compliant employers who default on their MPF contributions. In addition to actively following up on complaints against non-compliant employers, MPF trustees are required by law to submit monthly reports on suspected default contributions to the MPFA. The MPFA will conduct proactive investigations on any suspected cases of default contributions received to recover the arrears for the affected employees.

According to the annual report, in the 2021-22 financial year, the MPFA took various types of enforcement action against non-compliant employers, including issuing more than 300,000 payment notices, filing 1,028 civil claims and issuing 280 summonses, and successfully recovered $140 million in default contributions for 82,800 employees.

The annual report also provides a dedicated chapter on the development of the eMPF Platform. “After all the hard work in the past year, the Platform’s development has entered the final stage,” said Mrs Lau. “To ensure the Platform is launched as scheduled, the MPFA and eMPF Platform Company Limited have been working in full steam to supervise the implementation progress and every important detail of the project, including discussing with trustees the sequence of onboarding to the eMPF Platform, coordinating system testing strategies, and planning large-scale publicity, stakeholder engagement and public education programmes when the Platform is launched in phases.”

Recognizing that the views of stakeholders are of great importance to the development of the MPF System, Mrs Lau and the MPFA’s senior executives participated in close to 100 sessions of stakeholder engagement activities during the year to spread the MPF messages to stakeholders from different backgrounds while listening to their views on retirement protection.

Some key highlights of the MPF System in the 2021-22 annual report are as follows:

• As at the end of March 2022, total MPF assets amounted to $1.12 trillion, $326 billion (about 30%) of which was net investment returns. The annualized net return of the MPF System since its inception was 3.6%, higher than the corresponding inflation rate of 1.8% over the same period.
• As at the end of March 2022, there were 62,000 tax-deductible voluntary contribution (TVC) accounts with a total contribution amount of $6.43 billion. In 2021-22, the total amount of TVC was $2.51 billion, an increase of 13% from $2.21 billion in 2020-21.
• The MPF in some 2.7 million accounts (about 25.3% of the total number of 10.55 million accounts) were invested according to default investment strategy (DIS) or in the constituent funds of DIS, with total assets of $84.95 billion (about 7.6% of the total net asset value of the MPF System).
• The MPFA inspected 858 employment establishments and issued 317,500 payment notices in respect of MPF default contributions. Most of the 44,651 investigated cases involved suspected default contributions (44,596) and with some involved non-enrolment (1,080). In addition, 280 summonses were issued to employers and directors or managers of limited companies for prosecution, and 46 financial penalty notices were issued to repeat defaulters. During the year, the MPFA successfully recovered $140 million in default contributions for 82,800 employees.
• As at 31 Mar 2022, the average fund expense ratio (FER) was 1.39%, reduced by one-third from 2.1% in 2007, when the FER was first introduced.

The MPFA’s Annual Report 2021-22, which is published in electronic format, together with a video message from Mrs Lau and Mr Cheng Yan-chee, Managing Director of MPFA, is available on the MPFA website.

－Ends－

11 August 2022