Dongbaekjeon Local Currency Card

🤖 AI-generated summary · 🔎 Last verified 2026-07-26

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

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The cashback rate is the product, so every budget gap reaches users as a cut: 10% at launch, 6% in 2020, and on 17 November 2020 the payments stopped altogether.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing

Evidence🏛️ Official

what does this mean?

The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →

Run byBusan Metropolitan City, operated under contract by BNK Busan Bank since April 2022

Scale🏙️ City-wide

Cost≈87 billion won of city funds in 2025 (annual cashback subsidy, plus national government support)

FundingBusan city budget with national government subsidy for local gift certificates

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 9 more in Busan · 🪪 Digital government guide · 🏛️ Governance projects

Busan launched Dongbaekjeon on 30 December 2019: a prepaid card, topped up in an app, usable at registered Busan merchants. Cashback from public funds is the draw, tiered so shops under 1 billion won in annual revenue earn the top rate and those above 3 billion won earn none. The money keeps running out. The 10% launch rate fell to 6% in 2020, and payments stopped entirely on 17 November 2020. Rates still swing; the city fixed 10% for January to June 2026. Issuance reached 1.56 trillion won in January-November 2025 on 87 billion won of city money. A 2020 national study found no significant economy-wide effect.

Live 📅 since 2019

📊 Impact

1.56 trillion won issued January-November 2025, up 26% from 1.23 trillion won a year earlier, against 87 billion won of city cashback subsidy

🎓 Lesson

A discount is not a network. Six years in, the cashback rate is still the product, so the subsidy behaves like a permanent subscription rather than seed funding, and every budget gap is visible to users as a rate cut.

🏛️ Governance Digital government

Sources

↗ Busan Ilbo: cashback 10% to 6% to suspension (15 Nov 2020)Supports the 30 December 2019 launch at 10%, the cut to 6%, and the full suspension of cashback on 17 November 2020 after the budget was exhausted; quotes an Inje University professor saying the city damaged the scheme's sustainability and public trust in the policy.

↗ Busan Ilbo: cashback fixed at 10% for January-June 2026 (28 Dec 2025)Supports the 2026 first-half rate of 10% and the 500,000 won monthly cap; the merchant tiers (10% under 1bn won, 8% for 1-3bn, none above 3bn); and issuance of 1.56 trillion won January-November 2025, up 26% year on year, against 87 billion won of city funds.

↗ Newsis: Busan sets 10% Dongbaekjeon cashback for first half of 2026Second independent confirmation of the 2026 rate, monthly cap and merchant revenue tiers, and that the city fixed the rate to stop the constant swings caused by national subsidy timing.

↗ Busan Metropolitan City: Dongbaekjeon cashback notice, late 2025Authority source for the late-2025 rates (13% and 11% by revenue tier, 18% and 16% during the October-November festival window) and for the explicit condition that the festival bonus is not paid once the budget is depleted.

↗ Korea Institute of Public Finance: effect of local currency on regional economies (15 Sep 2020)Independent national evaluation by Song Kyung-ho and Lee Hwan-woong using 35 million business-census records for 2010-2018: no statistically significant regional activation effect from local currency issuance, with sales gains only at small marts and grocery stores competing with large retailers, and an estimated 46 billion won net deadweight loss on about 900 billion won of subsidy. Covers Korean local currencies generally, not Busan alone, and its method was publicly disputed by Gyeonggi Research Institute.

Show 2 more sourcesShow fewer

↗ Sisaon: Busan Bank to run Dongbaekjeon for one more year (19 May 2025)Supports BNK Busan Bank as operator under a contract running April 2022 to March 2025, extended by one year to 31 March 2026 while the city rebuilds the platform and app.

↗ Busan Is Good Dongbaekjeon - official service siteOperator's own site, confirming BNK Busan Bank as operating agent and that the card, app and cashback service are running in 2026.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇰🇷 Busan Blockchain Regulation-Free Special Zone · Busan Two Busan payment experiments: the zone's blockchain voucher moved 137m won; this cashback card issued 1.56tn won in 2025 alone. 🇦🇹 Kultur-Token · Vienna Both pay residents to change behaviour: Vienna's token rewarded low-carbon trips to 2024; Busan's card pays cashback to steer spending. 🇮🇩 KJP Plus: Jakarta's School Allowance Card · Jakarta Jakarta's school allowance works the same way: money on a card, spendable only at registered merchants, barely withdrawable.

Explore the wider context

💸 The Price Nobody Publishes 📖 Civic participation platform 📖 Digital identity 📖 Government super-app

📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Dongbaekjeon Local Currency Card” — Busan, South Korea. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/busan-dongbaekjeon-local-currency/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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