The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) on Monday said that the authority is confident that they can achieve their eMPF platform fee-cutting targets in less than four years.

The eMPF, the electronic platform of the MPF, was rolled out by the authority in June last year to cut costs and boost efficiency.

Speaking at a press briefing, MPFA chairwoman Ayesha Macpherson Lau said platform fees could fall to less than 30 basis points next year from the current 37 basis points.

She also noted the fee level before the eMPF was rolled out had stood at 58 basis points. She pointed out that if the fee is lowered to the 20-basis-point level, it would mark a total reduction of 38 basis points, which could improve net investment returns.

"For a wage earner, it means that by saving the 38-basis-point fees, it actually increases the net rate of return by 38 basis points in their accounts [through investments]," she said.

"And if we continue to contribute on the eMPF for 40 years, and continue to invest and accumulate, we expect that the final total amount in the MPF would increase by 10 percent – compared to the level before the fee cuts.

"That means for every HK$100 in the fund, the cost saving would turn it into HK$110 in the long term," she explained.

Separately, the authority reported that the average net return of the MPF this year – as of last Monday – was about 16 percent, with equity funds and mixed-asset funds recording net returns of 25 percent and 16.3 percent respectively.

Together, they accounted for 80 percent of the total assets under the MPF.