Kona I-Nonghyup Consortium Selected as Operator for 'Incheon e-eum'

Incheon e-eum Card

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] The 'Incheon e-eum' local currency operation agency consortium has selected the 'Kona I-NongHyup Bank Consortium' as the preferred negotiation candidate in the public offering for the Incheon local currency operation agency.

Incheon City announced on the 13th that it conducted quantitative and price evaluations for the three consortia participating in the public offering and held an evaluation committee, selecting the Kona I-NongHyup Bank Consortium as the first priority preferred negotiation candidate.

The second priority is the 'Shinhan Card-Shinhan Bank Consortium,' and the third priority is the 'Nice Information & Telecommunication-Hana Card Consortium.'

The city plans to negotiate with the Kona I consortium soon, sign an agreement, and delegate the operation of the local currency for three years starting from January next year.

Kona I jointly developed the Incheon e-eum platform with Incheon City and has operated Incheon e-eum annually through a sole contract since 2018, while NongHyup Bank manages the city's second treasury.

The Incheon e-eum payment fees applied from next year are 0% for annual sales of 500 million KRW or less, 0.7% for 500 million to 1 billion KRW, 1.25% for 1 billion to 3 billion KRW, and 1.15~1.5% (check card fee rate) for over 3 billion KRW.

Kona I earned 81.9 billion KRW in revenue from Incheon e-eum card payment fees over the past four years (2018?2021).

An Incheon City official said, "Through this public offering, we will eliminate the possibility of excessive profits by the operation agency in advance," adding, "We expect that the costs borne by local small business owners will be reduced and the service level experienced by citizens will improve."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.