Public institutions relocated to Busan fall short on local banking

Public institutions relocated to Busan are using Busan Bank for only 14.9 percent of their banking transactions, falling well short of expectations for regional financial contribution, a civic group said Monday.

The Busan chapter of the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) held a press conference Monday at the Busan Metropolitan Council briefing room to release findings from its investigation into local bank usage by public institutions in the city, based on 2025 data.

Since relocating public institutions is intended to revitalize local economies and foster regional finance, the Busan CCEJ has conducted and published annual surveys of local bank usage by public institutions in Busan since 2021, urging improvements to the system.

This year's investigation analyzed the local bank transaction status and treasury designation criteria of 46 public institutions in Busan for 2025. City-affiliated public corporations, agencies, and investment and endowment institutions recorded a relatively high Busan Bank usage rate of 62.3 percent. However, the rate was limited to 14.9 percent for public institutions that had relocated to Busan, 39.2 percent for Busan Port Authority and regional government offices, and 15.6 percent for national universities.

An analysis of treasury designation criteria found that many institutions assigned little or no weight to regional contribution, and that evaluation items unfavorable to local banks — such as overseas credit ratings — were still in place. Some institutions were found to allocate surplus funds to banks based solely on the highest interest rate, with no consideration given to regional contribution or local reinvestment.

To meaningfully expand public institutions' contribution to the local economy, the Busan CCEJ urged institutions to expand the weighting given to regional contribution and local reinvestment in treasury designation evaluations — or introduce such criteria where none exist — to review and revise the overseas credit rating criteria that disadvantage local banks, to factor in regional cooperation and local reinvestment alongside interest rates when selecting banks for surplus fund deposits, and to improve public institution management evaluations and related systems to encourage greater use of local banks.