Changing course to create a new way of banking – shared-value banking
Before I joined Discovery, I saw the brand as a top innovator and intellectual leader. While many would agree that this is Discovery, I’ve come to experience the brand as being so much more. It is a living part of the business that encapsulates our core purpose, our model of sharing value, and being a force for social good.
Our business model of sharing value between clients, the business and society has worked exceptionally well across Discovery’s businesses and has given the business a clear differentiating edge. And for just under three years now, we have refined this model to create and operate a bank like no other – a shared-value bank. The question is, are consumers ready for such a new way of thinking about and working with money?
For me it’s a definite yes – Discovery Bank is leading the way to banking for the future. When you consider that the way we’ve worked with money and interacted with banks has not changed much in 100 years, it could certainly be hard for some to see how it could ever change. Yet, we have to admit that these banking models are outdated and ripe for disruption. For example, an article in the Manhattan-based publication American Banker captures the international banking industry’s recent embrace of behavioural models in conducting business. The article used Discovery Bank as a case study of a business that has been able to cleverly explore the correlation between physical and financial health.
This is an accolade to Discovery Bank that, as one of the younger banks in the market, has brought about some of the greatest change. We’ve changed how people interact with banking through a single app, how they manage their money through behaviour change, and connect the banking benefits they receive to how well they manage their health, driving and money. That’s because, as a bank, we focus on creating value for each of our clients as they manage their money, regardless of their income bracket.
Our unique way of incentivising, measuring and rewarding clients’ financial behaviours happens through Discovery Bank’s proprietary Vitality Money programme and our world-class banking platform, which uses the latest security and banking technology. Vitality Money measures how well clients manage their money and the better they do, the higher their Vitality Money status and the greater the value they receive. This value takes the form of better interest rates on credit borrowing and savings, and unprecedented discounts and rewards at partners; along with Discovery Miles that is a powerful rewards currency that’s more valuable than cash through a vast network of online and retail partners.
In 2020 alone, Discovery Bank clients earned in excess of 4 billion Discovery Miles and spent 3.1 billion Discovery Miles at the various Bank partners. Additionally, clients were rewarded with over 1.6 billion Discovery Miles for healthy behaviour – testament of the merit of shared-value banking.
Discovery Bank is the banking revolution we’ve been waiting for. It’s already being recognised globally and enabling our clients to move away from a conventional banking model that gives them very little control over the benefits or rates they qualify for, and no guidance on how to change their banking risks to ensure greater financial benefits.
We started our year with a vibrant new marketing and advertising campaign that shows how Discovery Bank is creating a new category of banking. With this campaign, we unpack what shared-value banking means – marking our differentiation from conventional banks as we share the value created by our clients when they manage their money well through world-class banking benefits, rewards and incentives.
I would like to congratulate and thank the Discovery marketing teams involved in creating this campaign.