This is a busy time for changes to the retirement schemes legislation in Hong Kong. In the middle of June this year, the Legislative Council passed the Occupational Retirement Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2019 – see "The Hong Kong Occupational Retirement Schemes (Amendment) Ordinance Becomes Law" for more information on this major piece of legislation.

Then, just a week later, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 has come into force. This change to the MPF legislation is largely of an administrative nature. It empowers the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) to establish a wholly owned subsidiary and to delegate its functions to such subsidiary. The purpose is to build and operate an electronic system (i.e. the eMPF Centralised Platform) for more efficient administration of MPF schemes.

In addition, the new Amendment Ordinance gives the MPFA the power to charge approved trustees of a registered MPF scheme an annual registration fee of 0.03% of the net asset value (which is revised from 0%) of the MPF scheme, with effect from 1 October 2020. The Trustees are not permitted to pass the fee onto the MPF scheme or scheme members.

Full detail of the above amendments can be found at https://www.gld.gov.hk/egazette/pdf/20202430/es12020243016.pdf

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