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Discovery Bank tops ASK AFRICA Banking Brand Index© again, leading in trust and satisfaction

Johannesburg, 30 October 2025 – Research company, ASK AFRICA, today, announced the results of their second ASK AFRICA Banking Brand Index©, which includes views from clients across 10 major South African banks. This analysis placed Discovery Bank in the top position among industry peers for the second year in a row, with Discovery Bank standing out as the banking brand with the highest brand connection and emotional brand satisfaction.

This research consisted of interviews with over 4,000 customers across the banking industry between March and August 2025. It reveals how clients perceive and engage with banks, and how successful banks are in building trust by fulfilling their promises. The Index provides insight into client satisfaction through brand performance and explores emotional satisfaction through values alignment and loyalty to evaluate the strength of customer-brand relationships. This year, Discovery Bank, once again, was the clear winner on both metrics - winning the hearts and minds of clients - and ranked higher than the industry average across every dimension of the Index.

Hylton Kallner, CEO of Discovery Bank, says, “It is an incredibly competitive industry and across the board, banks are elevating products, services, and experiences to build stronger customer relationships – and it shows through research like this. We are thrilled to know that the majority of clients experience ‘Delight’ in satisfaction with Discovery Bank, and rated both satisfaction and emotional connection with our brand at 9 and 10 out of 10.

Placing in first position for the second time is truly humbling, and it is gratifying to know that focus on every customer interaction, and every product and service innovation culminate in our clients being delighted with our performance and feeling a strong emotional connection with us. Their feedback on their experiences match what we set out to offer as a bank: innovation that takes banking into the future, smart and easy sign-up and use of products, providing complete trust in how we take care of their money and help them manage money for financial wellbeing.”

The latest ASK AFRICA Banking Brand Index© showed the overarching differentiation for Discovery Bank is its focus on innovation and its brand expertise, which drives trust. Its focus on innovation is evident in the bank’s continual cycle of product and service innovation. Discovery Bank has built a full-service banking suite that offers the convenience of entirely digital customer journeys, recently announcing the launch of its in-app calling feature, a significant step in its vision to deliver an even safer, faster, and more intelligent banking experience. Integrated directly into the Discovery Bank app, in-app calling allows clients to connect with a banker instantly, bypassing traditional identification, IVR menus and the risks associated with searching for contact numbers online.

“The banking sector is a central part of our economy and it’s important for people to trust and connect with us as we partner with them to manage their finances. This work by ASK AFRICA equips us with a deeper understanding of what clients need and how they feel. It’s through this understanding that we can, as an industry, identify and implement client experiences and products that they need to build even stronger client relationships. We are immensely proud of these results. It affirms the consistency between what our clients experience and what we promise and set out to deliver as a banking brand bringing people the future of banking, now.”

ENDS

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About Discovery

Discovery Limited is a South African-founded financial services organisation that operates in the healthcare, life assurance, short-term insurance, banking, savings and investment and wellness markets. Since inception in 1992, Discovery has been guided by a clear core purpose – to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. This has manifested in its globally recognised Vitality Shared-Value insurance model, active in over 40 markets with over 40 million members. The model is exported and scaled through the Global Vitality Network, an alliance of some of the largest insurers across key markets including AIA (Asia), Ping An (China), Generali (Europe), Sumitomo (Japan), John Hancock (US), Manulife (Canada) and Vitality Life & Health (UK, wholly owned). Discovery trades on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange as DSY.

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About Discovery Bank

Discovery Bank is part of Discovery Limited, a financial services organisation that operates in healthcare, life assurance, short-term insurance, investments, banking, and wellness industries, in over 40 markets globally. Built on a shared-value model, Discovery Bank is fundamentally designed to create unique shared value for clients, differentiating the Bank from traditional banking models. Clients are encouraged to manage their money well, monetising healthy financial behaviours that lower their financial risk and realises long-term default and risk savings for the Bank. Discovery Bank shares this value with clients in the form of better interest rates, deep discounts and significant rewards from an exclusive retail, lifestyle and wellness partner network. The model has an overall positive impact on clients, society and Discovery Bank - clients experience greater financial wellbeing, the risk of defaults for Discovery Bank is lowered making the business more sustainable; while improved financial behaviours such as increased savings, higher retirement savings and lower debt levels, benefit society as a whole. Behaviour change and rewards are enabled through Vitality Money, an AI-powered programme on the Discovery Bank app that gives clients an understanding of the behaviours that influence their financial wellbeing, while giving them the tools to improve their financial behaviours. The more clients improve their financial behaviour, the higher their Vitality Money status and the greater the value they receive.


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