Discovery Bank hits 1 million customers in South Africa

Digital-only Discovery Bank says it has reached the milestone of acquiring its first one million clients, two years ahead of schedule.

This follows the Bank’s announcement earlier this year that it had over two million active accounts.

The bank started its official operations in 2019 after receiving its banking licence in 2017, building its systems and moving clients with credit cards (part of Discovery’s initial partnership with First Rand Bank) to the Discovery Bank platform.

Since then, the bank’s mainline strategy—’behavioural banking’— fuelled its client and deposit growth, which was up 31% to R16.67 billion in the first half of 2024, with advances increasing by 20% to R5.75 billion.

Over the past year, the bank introduced a Revolving Credit Facility and moved into home loans with an offering that cuts up to 1% off interest rate repayments.

“With these additions, the bank has, in under five years, grown to a completely digital, comprehensive retail bank offering that is attracting over 1,000 new clients a day,” the group said.

The milestone of 1 million customers is a result of the group adding 175,000 new clients since the start of the year. At its interim financials for the six months ended 31 December, the group reported its client base at 825,000.

The group set the goal of hitting one million clients by 2026.

At the time, the bank also narrowed its operating loss, which improved by 40% before new business acquisition costs, while the overall loss of R339 million was an improvement from the prior year.

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