Discovery says it is making progress with onboarding new clients, with the group now at 177,000 customers, holding 330,000 accounts.<\/p>\n
The group published a trading statement for the year ending June 2020, showing how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted its business – and how it will continue to do so.<\/p>\n
Discovery said that the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak has had a significant impact across all operations, including Discovery Bank.<\/p>\n
This has led to the creation of a significant provision for expected future Covid-19 effects, it said, so that on the group\u2019s expected scenario all claims and economic effects of the pandemic are carried fully in the FY20 year.<\/p>\n
The group anticipates a boost in normalised profit from operations for the year – before the potential future Covid-19 impacts – of between 15% to 25%.<\/p>\n
However, including the results of Discovery Bank, this narrows to between 5% to 15% up, compared to the prior year.<\/p>\n
Group normalised profit from operations after allowing for Covid-19 impacts is expected to decline\u00a0 between 18% and 28%, the group said, with overall group normalised headline earnings expected between 20% to 30% lower.<\/p>\n
Headline earnings (after the impact of long-term interest rates) is expected to decline by between 70% and 90%.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Discovery Bank, the group noted that migrations of the Discovery Card client base into the bank have been “successful and progressing rapidly”, with the full migration expected to be completed by end July 2020.<\/p>\n
The bank continues to attract new clients with its fully digital 24\/7 on boarding process \u2013 with over 177,000 clients and 330,000 accounts.<\/p>\n
“Deposit growth has also continued at a strong trajectory,” it said. “Discovery Bank has over R2.1 billion in retail deposits. Overall credit utilisation has declined during the lockdown and arrears including non-performing loans are still within expectation.”<\/p>\n