Discovery Bank has partnered with investment platform EasyEquities to offers clients share trading via the digital bank’s mobile app.
In a statement, the digital bank says users can now open a new EasyEquities account, or link an existing one through the Discovery Bank app, making investing in their favourite local and global brands and other asset classes simple and accessible.
The announcement comes as Discovery Bank is diversifying its product portfolio as it looks to break even.
Last month, it reported its operating loss for the financial year ended 30 June was R990 million, 10% lower than the previous financial year.
The digital-only bank continues to expand its current client base, with 470 220 clients (331 000 in the prior period) and 1 023 790 accounts (versus 649 000 in June 2021), which represents a significant milestone for the bank.
Billed as the “world’s first behavioural bank”, Discovery Bank was first announced in November 2018 and went into beta-testing phase in March 2019, when it touted its new offering as revolutionising banking clients’ behaviour.
Commenting on the new platform, Hylton Kallner, CEO of Discovery Bank, says: “The platform is transparent, easy-to-use and makes equity trading cost-effective and intuitive for all kinds of investors, from first-timers all the way through to seasoned traders.
“In collaboration with EasyEquities, we’ve been able to make the journey to investing in equities simple and frictionless. This is all part of our focus on promoting a positive long-term savings and investment culture across our client base.”
With the new platform, Discovery Bank clients can now buy, hold and sell shares on local and international stock exchanges and access a wide range of ETFs, ETNs, as well as crypto-currency.
The bank says the integration between Discovery Bank and EasyEquities is seamless, with clients being able to transfer funds between their Discovery Bank accounts and their EasyEquities ZAR account in real-time, at no cost and with no lock-up periods.
“We are incredibly proud to partner with an innovative business such as Discovery Bank. To see our brand alongside Discovery Bank and to work with their incredible team is a real honour and a privilege. We look forward to delivering an exceptional ‘easy’ experience to their clients,” says Charles Savage, CEO of Purple Group, parent company of EasyEquities.
The partners say Discovery Bank’s shared value banking model is designed to help clients manage their money well, and EasyEquities shares the bank’s deep conviction that saving and investing is key to helping South Africans build wealth, empower themselves and their communities, and ultimately strengthen our economy.
They add the bank’s shared-value banking model is enabled through Vitality Money, an AI-powered program on the Discovery Bank app, which gives users an understanding of behaviours that influence their financial well-being and how to manage their money.
The better clients do, the higher their Vitality Money status and the greater the value they receive, they explain.
The EasyEquities investment portfolios integrate directly into Discovery Bank’s Vitality Money programme, automatically counting towards the client’s Vitality Money status.
“The introduction of share trading with EasyEquities is consistent with our focus on helping our clients manage their money well over the long-term – and they get rewarded immediately through the Vitality Money programme for doing so,” says Kallner.
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