{"id":161643,"date":"2017-03-02T15:55:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T13:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=161643"},"modified":"2017-03-02T15:55:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T13:55:25","slug":"discovery-given-go-ahead-to-open-local-bank-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/161643\/discovery-given-go-ahead-to-open-local-bank-in-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery given go ahead to open local bank in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discovery has received authorisation<\/strong><\/a> from the Registrar of Banks to establish banking operations in South Africa, and is on track to launch its banking products next year.<\/p>\n

This is according to Discovery CEO Adrian Gore<\/strong><\/a>, who said they are deep into the preparation phase of the new bank.<\/p>\n

Gore said it is a complicated process to assemble the right team, build the systems to support the bank, and develop products which clients need.<\/p>\n

Despite the complications, he remains upbeat about the prospects of Discovery Bank \u2013 saying it is an exciting project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to meet the needs of our customers. I think we can. We have strong ideas and convictions about that. If we can do that, the market will tell us,\u201d said Gore.<\/p>\n

Discovery announced its plan to establish a retail bank in 2015, which will compete against Absa, FNB, Nedbank, Capitec, and Standard Bank.<\/p>\n

Gore said they had tremendous success with their joint venture with FNB on the Discovery Card, which provides them with a launch pad for full banking services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the capital, we\u2019ve hired bankers, we\u2019re building substantial systems. We want to make an offering that\u2019s relevant and can win market share,\u201d said Gore.<\/p>\n

Discovery has an advantage over the big four traditional banks, as it does not have to maintain a country-wide network of branches and ATMs.<\/p>\n

This means Discovery Bank\u2019s costs will be lower than its competitors.<\/p>\n

Former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan, who was behind making FNB the most innovative bank in the world, said the Discovery Bank<\/strong><\/a> has great potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Discovery Bank has the potential to be a big disruptor and a huge success, as it has been in other pockets of the financial services industry,\u201d Jordaan told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n

Jordaan told Business Times that Discovery can use its lower cost base to offer clients lower banking fees and better interest rates.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0The best and worst banks in South Africa in 2017<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discovery has received authorisation from the Registrar of Banks to establish banking operations in South Africa, and is on track to launch its banking products next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":105381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-161643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161647,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161643\/revisions\/161647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}