Hong Kong to launch first phase of fully portable MPF in December
Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund Authority says the first phase of fully portable MPF will launch on 21 December 2026, covering about 1 million employees who started work or changed jobs after 1 May 2025.
The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) has announced that the first phase of the fully portable Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme – known as “full free choice” – will be launched on 21 December 2026, in what it described as a major reform to give workers greater control over their retirement savings.
MPFA Chairman Alice Lau Mak-yin said in a blog post that the government had earlier published a gazette notice confirming the implementation date. She explained that the fully portable system would be rolled out in two phases to ensure an orderly transition.
The first phase will cover about 1 million employees who entered the workforce or changed jobs on or after 1 May 2025. The number of eligible workers is expected to rise as more graduates begin their careers and employees change jobs, Lau said.
Lau noted that the MPFA had introduced the Employee Choice Arrangement – known as “half free choice” – in 2012, allowing workers to transfer their own mandatory contributions from their employer’s MPF scheme to a scheme of their choice once per calendar year. Employer contributions, however, had to remain in the employer’s scheme because they could be used to offset long-service or severance payments.
As of September 2026, the number of transfers under the half free choice arrangement had exceeded 1.1 million, involving about HK$59 billion.
With the abolition of the MPF offsetting mechanism on 1 May 2025, the half free choice has been expanded to full free choice, Lau said. Employees will now be able to transfer not only their own contributions but also their employer’s contributions in full from the employer’s contribution account to a personal MPF account of their choice, once per calendar year. The change does not alter employers’ existing contribution arrangements.
The second phase of full free choice will cover employees who were already in their current jobs before 1 May 2025. Lau reminded employees that they can process transfers for the 2026 calendar year between 21 and 31 December, and for the 2027 calendar year from 1 January onwards. She cautioned that MPF is a long-term investment and that members should not transfer funds merely for the sake of transferring.
