Discovery Bank, a digital-only bank linked to South African businessman Adrian Gore, has reached 1 million accounts just two years after launch, as it continues to capitalize on South Africa’s rapid adoption of the Internet and technology through its “shared-value” model.
The South African full-service online bank and payment services company, dubbed the “world’s first behavioral bank,” now has more than 450,000 clients on its platform, with over R11 billion ($692 million) in deposits and R4.5 billion ($283 million) in credit advances.
The milestone attests to the success of bank’s broad spectrum of consumer-facing products and offerings, which meet almost all its customers’ needs, including credit cards and services such as pay-as-you-transact fees, a low-cost option that provides an introduction to shared-value banking.
To increase product adoption in its home market of South Africa, which has a population of more than 59 million people, Discovery has launched new product offerings such as Discovery Pay, a digital payments service for real-time payments, Discovery Account, aimed at clients who do not already have a bank account, and Discovery Miles Account, which will allow clients to save the Discovery Miles (rewards) that they earn across their Discovery products.
Other products launched by the digital bank include the Vitality Travel booking platform, which allows customers to book all domestic and regional flights, and the Vitality pay-as-you-go gym, which gives customers access to more than 170 Virgin Active and Planet Fitness clubs nationwide.
With the introduction of these new products, it will be able to compete effectively with another digital bank, TymeBank, which has opened 4.95 million accounts to date and provides value to clients through its partnership with Pick n Pay.
In light of the recent achievement, Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner stated: “Our first million accounts provide us with a strong foundation to continue disrupting the market.”
He added that the bank is laser-focused on delivering value and further improving its clients’ banking, travel, and payments experiences with the new services and capabilities, as the digital bank will be strategically positioned as the operating system for all Discovery clients and products.
Discovery Bank is an operating subsidiary of Discovery Group, a South African financial services conglomerate founded in 1992 by Gore. The group is now South Africa’s largest health insurer.
Nearly two weeks ago, Discovery Group’s motor insurance division launched its own fire service in Johannesburg, “The Discovery Fire Force Project,” a one-of-a-kind solution aimed at protecting Discovery Insure clients in the metropolitan area from the devastating impact of fires.
