Discovery Bank making banking more intelligent, personalised, and secure

Johannesburg – 27 March 2025 – Discovery Bank announced the latest advancements in its banking features and services, unveiled today at a client and financial adviser launch.

Salient additions to Discovery Bank:

• Vitality Money, the bank’s behavioural change programme, now incorporates rewards for financial planning to align clients’ short-term goals and long-term aspirations, including estate planning.
• Enhanced security features: New card and device management functionality, fraud monitoring and persistent warnings, Digital Account Vault and access to emergency services through Discovery 911.
• Discovery AI, a comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) capability powering a more personalised, sophisticated and intelligent digital banking experience.

Hylton Kallner, CEO of Discovery Bank said: “We see a future where banks connect seamlessly with every aspect of a client’s life – their health, finances, lifestyle, and aspirations. In this product release, we’re enhancing our offering in five key areas to achieve this vision: financial wellness, account management and control, security, intelligence and personalisation, and shared-value.”

“The banking industry is evolving at an extraordinary pace. Digital disruption, changing consumer expectations, and the power of AI and data have completely redefined what financial services can offer. And yet, too often, banking remains transactional rather than truly empowering people. At Discovery Bank, we firmly believe that transactions, accounts, and payments are just the starting point. From the outset, we set out to build a bank that rewards positive financial behaviours, empowers people with data and technology, and operates as part of a greater ecosystem designed to improve lives.”

An intelligent and personalised offering

AI is reshaping the future of banking, enabling smarter, faster and more personal financial experiences. It offers banks the ability to move beyond one-size-fits-all services and deliver tailored support that empowers clients, improves accessibility and brings private banking insights and service to everyone. AI is unlocking new ways to connect with clients: from predictive insights and seamless digital support to hyper-personalised financial tools once reserved for high-net-worth individuals.

Clients will be able to access Discovery AI through the Bank’s WhatsApp channel. After being securely authenticated in the app, clients can use this set of capabilities through text, voice notes or images to get tailored answers around their spending and savings patterns, understand their accounts better, and get suggestions to budget effectively and maximise product features and rewards.

Increasing safety and security

“As banking becomes increasingly digital, so too do the threats. The global rise in phishing, website cloning, card fraud, and other social engineering tactics highlights the evolving sophistication of fraudsters and the shift of fraud risk to the client and their smartphone. While technology has made payments faster and more secure, banks must go further – empowering clients with the tools and protections they need to navigate these risks confidently,” says Kallner.

The Bank is constantly reviewing how it can better secure clients’ money and enhance its multi-layered security features. These include, among other things, adding persistent, in-app fraud warnings, which remind clients to think twice and verify who they’re speaking to if they’re on a call when opening the app. And a new, additional layer of security to move client’s most valuable accounts to a digital vault that can only be accessed via a client-selected security code. Besides hiding the account, it also gives clients the option to enter a custom panic code to silently alert Discovery Bank if they are accessing these accounts in the digital vault under duress.

Kallner added: “We’re patenting this as an industry first. Once you enter your chosen panic code, transactions will continue to be processed as normal, but it will alert our fraud management team. They will start monitoring transactions and, when necessary, activate an emergency response – including alerting law enforcement and armed response.” He said the Discovery Bank app will also link clients to emergency services with Discovery 911 when they need it. “By integrating these services directly into our app, we make it easier to access emergency help, whether it’s medical, roadside or home-related. This is the manifestation of our purpose to enhance and protect our clients’ lives.”

Planning ensures alignment of financial goals

Vitality Money is designed to empower clients to manage five controllable behaviours which will help prevent 80% of situations where clients are unable to meet their financial obligations. Financial planning is the critical link between short term controllable behaviours and longer-term goals and aspirations.

Kallner said, “The data is clear, Discovery Bankclients 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. Planning is an essential foundation that empowers people to adopt these behaviours because it aligns short-term goals with long-term aspirations. That is why we’re rewarding clients for taking steps to improve their financial knowledge, utilising advanced budgeting tools, and implementing long-term financial and estate planning, including access to personalised wills and estate planning services through Discovery later in the year.”

“We’ve taken the best of Discovery – our data, technology, and shared-value model – and brought it all together into one seamless, secure, and deeply personalised banking experience,” Kallner concluded.

ENDS