{"id":818453,"date":"2025-03-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=818453"},"modified":"2025-03-27T13:58:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T11:58:17","slug":"big-changes-for-discovery-bank-rewards-and-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/818453\/big-changes-for-discovery-bank-rewards-and-features\/","title":{"rendered":"Big changes for Discovery Bank rewards and features"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Discovery Bank is launching a host of new features, with the digital-bank welcoming over a thousand cusomters per day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner said the bank continues to see strong growth after hitting 1.1 million customers and adding about 1,500 customers per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kallner added that two-thirds of these customers are new to the group. Moreover, he added that most customers use the app daily, making it the best performer overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since launching in May 2024, the group has also seen a strong performance in its home loans business, with its book standing at R1.2 billion in just nine months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>75% of these home loan sales came from switches from other providers. Many new loans also come from clients entering the property market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The digital bank is also undergoing a series a major changes in the immediate and near-term future, including new AI tools, Viltality Money improvements, and cybersecurity upgrades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Firstly, <strong>Vitality Money, the bank&#8217;s behavioural change programme, now incorporates rewards for financial planning.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vitality Money previously had five controllable behaviours, which prevented 80% of the situations where clients were unable to meet their financial obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe data is clear: Discovery Bank clients who engage with Vitality Money are financially healthier, save more and spend prudently. As a result, they enjoy even more rewards through our shared-value model.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Planning is an essential foundation that empowers people to adopt these behaviours because it aligns short-term goals with long-term aspirations,&#8221; said Kallner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, The bank rewards customers for improving their financial knowledge using advanced budgeting tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its long-term financial planning services will also expand, offering personalised wills and estate planning services later in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Customers can earn up to 40,000 additional Vitality Money points for planning via four steps, such as creating a will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tech upgrades <\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/kallner-one--e1743074725354.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/kallner-one--1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-818456\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The Bank will also offer enhanced security features for customers. This includes new card and device management functionalities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Customers can still create 50 free virtual cards and name each card for easy identification. Customers can now also view all devices, wallets and subscriptions linked to cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Customers will now also be able to view transactions grouped by card or device used, allowing them to quickly identify if there is fraud or misuse on their cards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discovery also announced an industry-first Digital Account Vault, which provides clients an additional layer of security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apart from hiding the account, it will also allow customers to <strong>enter a custom panic code, silently altering Discovery Bank if the digital vault is under duress.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Once you enter your chosen panic code, transactions will continue to be processed as normal, but it will alert our fraud management team,&#8221; said Kallner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;They will start monitoring transactions and, when necessary, activate an emergency response \u2013 including alerting law enforcement and armed response.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Discovery Bank app will now also link clients to emergency services with Discovery 911 when needed, making it easier to access emergency help, whether it\u2019s medical, roadside or home-related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discovery Bank will soon launch <strong>Discovery AI<\/strong>, which the group believes will improve accessibility and bring private banking insights and services to its customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It added that AI is creating new ways to connect with clients, from predictive insights and seamless digital support to hyper-personalised financial tools usually only for high-net-worth individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clients will be able to access Discovery AI via the Bank&#8217;s WhatsApp channel. After being authenticated via the app, clients can send texts, voice notes, or images to get tailored answers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The AI will be able to give insights into spending and savings patterns, understand their accounts better, and get suggestions to budget effectively and maximise product features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discovery Bank is launching several new features, including a first-of-its-kind Digital Account Vault. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":812770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[4883,12923],"class_list":["post-818453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-discovery","tag-discovery-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818453","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818453"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818467,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818453\/revisions\/818467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}