UN Special Advocate Queen Máxima meets Discovery Bank on financial health, youth literacy programme, and research lab plans

Cape Town, 21 May 2025 – Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate (UNSGSA) for Financial Health met with Discovery Bank CEO, Hylton Kallner, and other guests at Discovery Store in Sea Point, Cape Town. They explored the bank’s fully digital behaviour-change programme, Vitality Money, and how it enables financial health through science-based behavioural nudges and a variety of financial and lifestyle rewards. This meeting was part of Queen Máxima’s three-day visit in South Africa focused on supporting the private sector, policymakers, and regulators to improve the financial health of all South Africans.

The Bank also announced its plans to launch a financial literacy programme tailored for children and youth, along with the establishment of a dedicated research lab in South Africa focused on advancing financial health. These initiatives aim to foster local innovation and collaboration, drawing inspiration from successful global practices while addressing the unique needs of the South African context.

“Knowledge about healthy financial habits and managing money are crucial to achieve financial health and there is a vast gap in educating children and youth about these issues,” Kallner said.

While there has been progress in financial inclusion across Africa, there has been low increases in savings and an even lower take-up of insurance. In South Africa, specifically, financial literacy is considered low, and many find it difficult to confidently manage their day-to-day finances to make ends meet, build up savings for emergencies or save enough for retirement and other long-term goals like buying property, which have been identified by the UNSGSA as the fundamentals of achieving financial health.

Improving financial health around the world

In her role as the UNSGSA for Financial Health, UNSGSA Queen Máxima leads a global advocacy effort to enable the development and delivery of financial solutions and products that improve financial health for households around the world, fostering a more inclusive and sustainable financial ecosystem that supports financial stability and long-term prosperity for everyone. She believes technology will play an increasingly important role and that digital advancements in financial services create vast potential to drive financial health globally.

Kallner says, “It was an honour for us to host UNSGSA Queen Máxima to show how as a fully digital bank, we apply our shared-value banking model and Vitality Money to encourage and reward positive behaviour change that support our clients’ financial health. The shift in the UNSGSA Queen Máxima’s focus from financial inclusion to financial health, and how it is defined, is very much aligned with the premise of Vitality Money, with data and digital technology playing a fundamental role in these innovations. Discovery Bank has since inception seen an opportunity to improve the financial health of millions of South Africans and we increasingly observe the link between physical, mental and financial health.”

Addressing financial knowledge and behaviour

Since launching the bank to the public in 2019, they focused on addressing financial challenges by encouraging five behavioural changes that account for approximately 80% of the reasons why people experience defaults and financial shortfalls. The behaviours Vitality Money encourages include spending less than you earn, saving regularly, insuring for adverse events, paying off property, and investing for the long term. Through the bank’s unique shared-value banking model, they guide clients and reward financial decisions that improve financial health, reduce risk, and increase prosperity – creating a shared-value cycle that benefits the bank’s clients, the bank itself and society.

Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA) emphasised that while South Africa has made notable strides in financial inclusion, the lack of financial health is weakening resilience and stalling inclusive growth. The UNSGSA encouraged financial institutions to treat financial health as a core business goal – embedding it at Board level, using data to design better products, and measuring progress. The UNSGSA emphasised that financial health is good for customers, good for the bottom line, and good for the nation.

Products and services that enable financial health

The UNSGSA recognises the need for private sector participants in improving financial health and highlights behaviourally informed product design and features.

“Our model places the needs of clients at the centre of our products and services. In Discovery Bank, our ecosystems are designed to improve lives and benefit the wellbeing of our clients from a single, digital app. Using data and behavioural science, our clients receive personalised nudges that encourage them to complete actions that increase their ability to improve their financial wellbeing and give them opportunities to earn higher rewards. Financial awareness and education, through budgeting and other tools that we incorporate in Vitality Money, are also crucial for good financial decision-making. What we have seen, is that it’s more about what you do with your money and knowing how to manage it, than about how much you earn that will ultimately determine financial health,” Kallner explained.

A couple, attending the event as special guests, confirmed the value of the financial education tools. They enrolled on a financial education course offered by Worth through Vitality Money in the Discovery Bank app. Following this, they used the budgeting and financial planning features of Vitality Money, which have helped them track expenses, manage debt, and set their goals of owning a home and being debt-free.

The success of Vitality Money is evident from data that shows clients who participate in the programme have a lower likelihood of defaulting on repayments, regardless of income level. Clients who reach Gold and Diamond Vitality Money status are also 97% less likely to be behind on payments and have 11 times more deposits in savings compared with those who are unengaged in the programme.

Kallner shared the UNSGSA Queen Máxima’s sentiment around the power of technology to gain insights and build client-centric products that enable financial health. “Digital banking not only increases financial inclusion and safety, but we also have an important role to play in education and financial wellbeing across income groups. As a fully digital bank in the palm of our clients’ hands, we see a future where banks connect seamlessly with every aspect of their lives – their health, finances, lifestyle, and aspirations. Through Vitality Money and digital tools, such as Discovery AI, we are creating a banking offering that connects with the needs of clients and gives them support to achieve financial health and enjoy the many rewards of positive behaviour change. It’s encouraging to know that we align with the vision of the UNSGSA Queen Máxima in this important work.”

Notes to Editors:

Read more about the UNSGSA for Financial Health: www.unsgsa.org

Read more about Vitality Money: www.discovery.co.za/bank/vitality-money

ENDS