Dineo Faku
DISCOVERY Bank aims to break even with up to 700 000 clients in 2024.
In a JP Morgan Conference held yesterday, Hylton Kallner, the chief executive of Discovery Bank, said the bank, which was launched in 2019, had more than 400 00 clients in November 2021, of which more than 375 000 were primary clients, representing a 31 percent increase compared to the beginning of the calendar year.
“The bank is expected to break even with between 600 000 to 700 000 clients as expected in 2024 based on the client growth rate of 600 per day,” he said.
Discovery Bank, which strives to be a fully digital retail bank and is part of the Adrian Gore-led Discovery group, told investors it was adding more than 600 clients per day. More than 50 percent of these clients were new to Discovery Group, with a high-value business mix.
In the financial year ended June 2021, the bank’s client base was 362 000 and 649 000 accounts, with an average of 500 daily new-to-bank sales. Discovery Bank reported a R1.09bn operating loss in the period.
Going forward, the group aimed to use forex accounts for saving, transacting, spending and trading in foreign currencies. The bank would continue offering Vitality Travel giving its clients exclusive access to discounted travel at a wide range of airline, accommodation, car rental and travel package partners.
It said the Discovery Pay account– a digital transaction account with full banking capability and benefits for Discovery Health and Vitality clients – would be a key driver of growth. The bank said it had around 25 percent of the high-net-worth spend market share.
Its operating expenses per client reduced by 20 percent and Vitality Money was driving healthy balance sheet growth with the expected behavioural correlations holding well. The group said deposits were growing at more than R9bn. In the year ended June 2021, on average, clients earned more than 409 million Discovery Miles every month, spending over 2.1 billion miles at Discovery Bank partners.
On Tuesday Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings said it had invested in South African digital bank TymeBank. CDC Group has also invested, to take the bank’s series-B capital raise to $180 million (R2.9 billion). The investments from Tencent and CDC are valued at an additional $70 million, TymeBank said. CDC Group is the UK’s development finance institution.
TymeBank has become one of the world's fastest growing digital banks. It had acquired 4 million customers in 32 months.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE