We are ready to roll out the next phase of onboarding clients

Good news - we've successfully completed our early onboarding period and are now ready to go public and scale our behavioural retail bank up in phases. Here's the latest.

For those wondering why the early onboarding phase took longer than expected, we found it vital to check and recheck due to the sophistication of our underlying systems and the complexity of the task.

Our digital bank has over 120 distinct and connected systems. In order to ensure that these systems integrate properly and create a seamless experience for our clients, we needed to get four structural factors in perfect working order:

1. The integration of full-scale digital banking functionality for clients within the Discovery ecosystem - in other words, we needed to ensure that all the different products and features "speak" to each other properly.
2. The systems and technology infrastructure - this is the backbone of all banking operations, after all.
3. The rewards architecture - so that our clients can earn and enjoy all their rewards from the get-go.
4. The migration of existing Discovery Card holders - to make sure that the clients in the first phase is experiencing an effortless transition to their new accounts.

Sophisticated structures beneath make for a seamless interface up top

Discovery Bank is mobile-first and deposit-led, and offers clients sophisticated lending capabilities from the get-go. As you can imagine, building these systems was uniquely complex, as the systems need to bring together all the functionalities you'd expect from a traditional bank and interweave this with advanced digital system capabilities, Vitality incentives and Discovery Health systems. These integrated systems took an incredible 1.5 million hours to build!

We're focused on dazzling our clients

But it was all worth it in the end. The insights that were revealed in the rigorous onboarding phase have put us in a strong position to deliver a uniquely disruptive behavioural banking solution with the aspiration that it takes no more than three clicks to complete any task.

A prime example of this user-friendly consumer experience is our proprietary Smart Onboarding process, where both existing Discovery Card clients and new clients without credit are fully onboarded, compliance-checked, and transacting immediately - all in under five minutes!

So, what is the next step in onboarding clients?

We plan to onboard 1 000 clients per day by the end of August 2019, and scale further from there. While our existing Discovery Card clients will get first priority for onboarding, we're super-excited about the substantial show of interest from non-Discovery clients, and promise to make contact with every one of you!

Discovery founder explains what it means to bank healthier

Watch Adrian Gore, founder and Chief Executive of Discovery Limited, describe how Discovery Bank will make a difference to clients. He explains how the unique behavioural banking model differs from that of both traditional banks and new fintech; it offers a ?third way' by means of a sophisticated, intuitive bank that profoundly affects people's behaviour, helps them manage their money better and get rewarded for it.

Gore also talks about the bank's BEE scheme explaining the legislative, social and moral imperatives behind it. He elaborates on the bank's broad-based approach towards inclusive economic growth, which he sees as key to building a safer, secure, prosperous South Africa, and contextualises the Bank within Discovery's commitment to invest R13 billion in the country over the next five years.

True digital banking - more than just a banking app

Banking may have moved forward digitally, but limited functionality and design means that you may still need to pop into a bank branch every now and then to do your day-to-day banking. A fully digitised bank like ours offers real-time solutions, flexibility, accuracy and innovation that is designed to bring you a seamless banking experience from the palm of your hand.

The Discovery Bank app is designed with you in mind. Packed with hundreds of features, you can go from signing up in minutes, personalising your accounts and cards, making payments using smart payment features like Samsung Pay, Garmin Pay and Fitbit Pay, viewing and managing your accounts from a single dashboard to managing your family's finances. You can even build your own statements and transaction history by grouping, sorting and filtering receipts and transactions.

It doesn't end there! With Vitality Money you can track your spend, set up budgets and financial goals and use our range of innovative money management tools - all while getting rewarded for getting financially healthier. That's just a sneak peak of what you can look forward to.

We are turning banking on its side and have put the power back in your hands - bank easily, securely and quickly, so you can spend more time doing the things you love.

Keep an eye on out for more updates and the latest Discovery Bank news.

Discovery Bank beta testing kicks off in November 2018

After six months of alpha testing, we are thrilled to have kicked off our beta testing and are inviting our Discovery staff members to join. We've designed a banking solution that lets people manage their money better - one that will leave everyone wondering why it was never done this way before.

We're also busy dialling up our operations in anticipation of bringing more of our clients across when Discovery Bank officially opens its doors to the public. Our main goal is to help people improve their financial health by changing the way they work with their money.

We've had an incredible response to the launch of the Discovery Bank so far, with thousands of people adding their name to our list to be first to join once we're up and running for everyone. Remember, the bank is open to all South Africans and you don't need a Discovery product to join, but obviously if you already are a client, you'll enjoy more rewards through integration.

We look forward to reaching out to all the people who left their details with us first, and will be sharing more info with them over the next few weeks and months. You can also stay tuned to this news site for the latest on how Discovery's helping SA bank healthier?

Do South Africans need to bank healthier?

Discovery Bank has done the research, and it boils down to this: If South Africans, as individuals and as a nation, want to move forward socio-economically - we desperately need to reduce our debt and foster a healthier savings culture.

There are now eight million more credit-active consumers than the total number of employed people in South Africa. And the problem is bigger than these figures reveal, because they don't account for informal debt like private loans.

By and large, South Africans are big borrowers and poor savers, but 5 financial behaviours can help people become financially healthier. Learn what they are, and how strong incentives to improve these behaviours can help South Africans become more money-savvy. Find a case for behavioural banking here.

How Vitality Money and boosted Vitality rewards work

In 2019, Discovery Bank - the world's first behavioural bank - will be available to the South African public. Simply put, it's a bank that will guide, motivate and reward you for getting financially healthier. If you're unsure how the bank will help you manage your money better and what Vitality Money is, we've put together a summary.

The article explains how your Vitality Money status is formed, how you can earn points to increase it, and what rewards you can expect for doing so. These include Dynamic Interest Rates, boosted Vitality rewards and the ability to earn more rewards for spending responsibly and hitting all your weekly Vitality Active Reward goals. We also give you a snapshot of our wide range of partners for Discovery Bank's boosted Vitality rewards. Learn more here.

The science behind Vitality Money

At Discovery, we take our research very seriously. We're committed to verified data collection, rigorous analysis, input from a range of fields for diverse and holistic perspectives, the best in thought leadership and behavioural theory, and long-term solutions that align with our shared-value model. That's why we put so much time and effort into white papers - we know that by understanding the challenges South Africans face, we'll be better placed to help solve them.

In this research report, ?Banking for a Stronger South Africa', we present relevant (and worrisome) statistics about the current financial health of South Africans. We then delve into behavioural theory and the human biases that impact how people understand and engage with their finances, showing how changing five simple behaviours can have a massive impact on financial health. Dig into the details here.