What to expect from Discovery Bank’s launch
Discovery is expected to unveil some elements of its new bank on Wednesday – and while details of what it will offer have been carefully held under wraps, recent rulings by the Competition Tribunal, and hints from the financial group itself, give at least some idea of what users can expect.
Discovery chief executive officer Adrian Gore and Barry Hore, the CEO of Discovery Bank, will on Wednesday “update on a significant milestone in the evolution of Discovery as they introduce Discovery Bank’s value proposition,” the group said.
The Competition Tribunal ruled on 7 November that Discovery and FirstRand could conclude its merger deal with no conditions, which effectively allows Discovery Bank to take over the card business which was previously being run by FirstRand via FNB.
In the ruling, the Tribunal said that once the transaction is implemented, a group called ‘NewDisc’ will control the card transfer business.
NewDisc, which now trades as Discovery Bank, is a newly established firm held by Discovery Purple Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Discovery Purple, itself, is controlled by Discovery Limited.
Discovery Purple?
Discovery Purple is a premium range of products launched by Discovery, which offers an exclusive suite of services that has been designed to deliver the most comprehensive benefits and rewards.
The business unit comprises Vitality Purple, Purple Insurance, Purple Investments – and the Purple Discovery Card, which is an invitation-only VIP rewards scheme tied to the financial services Discovery Bank inherited from FNB.
That Discovery Bank falls under Discovery is likely not a coincidence.
According to Discovery CEO Adrian Gore, the group’s banking offering will be firmly tied into the group’s tradition of using rewards to manage customers’ behaviour.
This has been seen through the success of the Vitality rewards programme, which has helped Discovery clients achieve health and fitness goals through select incentives, such as offering discounts on health items and fitness tools – which in turn can lead to reduced insurance premiums.
It’s these “behavioural interventions” that will undoubtedly make their presence felt in Discovery’s banking debut.
Gore said that the Vitality model has been shown to work – and in the group’s recently released integrated report for 2018, it is clear that Vitality has been working closely with the banking team on its services.
“Vitality has been working closely with research and development teams on various projects for the planned launch of Discovery Bank,” the group said.
“The focus has been on product development and refinement, leveraging Vitality’s experience in behaviour modification and incentives.”
Speaking on the Vitality scheme’s future, Discovery said it will “continue to build the Vitality platform and behaviour-linked financial service offerings to optimise the network”.
For some indication of where Discovery Bank is heading with its service offerings, the group has registered a number of trademarks with the Companies And Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), which includes Discovery Bank, Discovery Banker, Discovery Private Banker and Discovery Pay.
The latest trademark is for a Discovery One or 1 Account.
As part of the description of the Discovery One Account – along with banking, electronic banking, credit card services et al – a rewards scheme aspect is also specifically mentioned.
The account refers to “issuing of tokens of value as part of incentive, reward or loyalty programs and other promotional schemes” as part of the account’s offering.
Read: Discovery on the threshold of starting its banking unit after fully subscribed bookbuild
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