The Official Numbers: eMPF Reaches Full Onboarding, Fees Cut Nearly in Half
On 3 May 2026, MPFA Chairman Mrs Ayesha Macpherson Lau announced in her blog that the eMPF platform had completed full onboarding -- the final scheme to join was the Bank of East Asia (Trustees) Limited-administered "BEA (MPF) Industry Scheme," which came onboard on 30 April 2026. This marked the end of nearly two years of system migration, unifying the administration systems of all 12 MPF trustees onto a single electronic platform covering roughly 5 million scheme members, 300,000 employers, 11 million MPF accounts and over HK$1.5 trillion in assets -- described as the most far-reaching reform since the MPF System began.
The more immediately useful news is the fee cut. In a press release dated 24 March 2026, the MPFA confirmed the Financial Secretary had approved reducing the eMPF fee from 0.37% to 0.29% of assets under administration, effective 1 April 2026 -- a 21.6% reduction. This is the second cut: before eMPF launched, trustees charged an average administration fee of 0.58%, so the current fee is already roughly half of what it used to be. The MPFA Chairman noted that as digital adoption keeps rising, the fee could fall further to 0.20%-0.25%, with a projected HK$50 billion in administration cost savings within less than 10 years.
The Platform Is Consolidated. Is Your Account?
What eMPF did was merge the administration systems of 12 trustees into one, so you can log into a single account and see all your schemes. But being able to "see everything" is not the same as "everything being consolidated" -- if you have changed jobs a few times and never actively transferred or consolidated the MPF account from your old employer, you likely still have several "personal accounts" scattered across different trustees and funds, each still following an allocation you may have chosen years ago, with no one watching it.
Per an official MPFA publication ("Decluttering Your MPF Personal Accounts"), as of end-December 2016 the MPF System had 3.87 million contribution accounts and 5.36 million personal accounts, and over 40% of personal account holders held two or more accounts. That is older historical data, but the underlying habit -- changing jobs without consolidating accounts -- did not disappear just because eMPF went live. The platform helps you "see" the problem; solving it still requires you to act.
This matters more for high earners: your MPF balance is rarely just a few thousand dollars, and it is often spread across 3-4 schemes, each tracking a different risk-level fund mix. Without anyone watching the whole picture, it is easy to end up with an unintentional split -- half aggressive, half conservative -- that no longer matches your actual risk tolerance.
3 Things High Earners Should Think Through Before Consolidating
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01
Merging accounts does not automatically mean better
Before consolidating, actually compare the track record and Fund Expense Ratio (FER) of the trustees and funds involved. Do not consolidate purely because fewer accounts is more convenient and ignore the real differences in performance and fees.
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02
Contribution accounts vs personal accounts have different transfer rights
The contribution account under your current employer's scheme is subject to the semi-portability rule -- you cannot choose the trustee, your employer does. But personal accounts from past employers give you much more freedom to choose which trustee to consolidate into. Know which type each account is before deciding how to consolidate.
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03
Consolidating still needs ongoing follow-up
Consolidating accounts solves the fragmentation problem, but not the problem of no one watching whether the allocation still fits the market. Markets shift, and so does your life stage -- your allocation should shift with them. That ongoing oversight is where ongoing management actually adds value.
3 Steps to Check for Dormant Accounts
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1
Log into eMPF and check the donut chart
The eMPF platform shows a chart of exactly which trustees and schemes you have accounts under, so you can see how fragmented your holdings are at a glance. If you have not registered for eMPF yet, the MPFA is urging members to register as soon as possible.
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2
Use a fund comparison tool to check performance and fees
Pull the fund performance and FER data from each of your current schemes and compare them against the market before deciding which trustee to consolidate into.
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3
Get a licensed advisor to review your whole portfolio
Consolidating accounts is a one-time action, but whether your allocation actually fits your retirement goals and risk tolerance needs ongoing attention -- a free review now will make that much clearer.
Sources: MPFA press release dated 24 March 2026, eMPF fee reduced to 29 basis points starting 1 April (mpfa.org.hk); MPFA Chairman's Blog dated 3 May 2026, eMPF achieves full onboarding (mpfa.org.hk); eMPF trustee/scheme onboarding schedule, published 27 July 2026 (empf.org.hk). All three sources were fetched and verified directly on 7 September 2026. The 2016 personal-account distribution figure is from the MPFA publication "Decluttering Your MPF Personal Accounts" (mpfa.org.hk, fetched and verified directly), cited for historical context only and does not reflect current conditions. This article is general education content, not personalised investment advice; defer to official MPFA and eMPF notices for anything procedural.