TCS | Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner on tech, AI and the future of banking

Loading player...
Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner believes technology is fundamental to the company’s success.
Kallner, an actuary who joined Discovery in its early days as a medical insurance company and who has held various senior leadership roles over the years, tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the group’s decision to launch a bank when it did. He shares how the business is doing – spoiler: it’s trending well ahead of schedule – and what comes next.
He tells the TechCentral Show about:
• How Discovery Bank is doing financially and how it’s tracking against its business plan;
• Its client base – who they are and who the bank is targeting as its clientele (the answer may surprise you);
• Why Discovery launched a bank into what was already a competitive market and what it’s doing differently to its rivals to attract people to switch;
• The learnings from Discovery Health and Discovery Vitality, and how Discovery Bank has leveraged these in its products and services;
• Discovery Bank’s technology stack, why it chose the IT solutions it did, and why it built much of its banking solution in-house;
• What’s next from Discovery Bank in terms of solutions; and
• The bank’s plans with AI – and why it believes AI could be a gamechanger.
Lastly, Kallner, a prolific reader, shares two of his favourite non-fiction books with the TechCentral audience.
Don’t miss a great discussion!
23 Mar 2025 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

Meet the CIO | Inside the JSE’s tech engine with CIO Tebalo Tsoaeli

Technology sits at the heart of modern capital markets, and nowhere is that more evident than at the JSE. In the latest episode of Meet the CIO, TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod sits down with Tebalo Tsoaeli, the bourse’s CIO, to unpack how technology underpins Africa’s largest stock exchange – and…
2 Feb 47 min

TCS+ | Cloud On Demand and Consnet: inside a real-world AWS partner success story

The cloud revolution has challenged businesses of all sizes by changing how IT teams go about implementing projects and managing infrastructure. IT service firms have been doubly challenged, having to sell a new computing paradigm to their clients while also practising what they preach and adopting cloud-first technologies in-house. Consnet…
30 Jan 25 min

Watts & Wheels S1E3: ‘BYD’s Corolla Cross challenger’

TechCentral’s electric car show Watts & Wheels is back for episode 3 of season 1, and while EVs remain the focus, the conversation takes a detour into something far less planet-friendly – and far more jaw-dropping. Duncan McLeod and co-host William Kelly kick off by drooling over a wild new…
30 Jan 36 min

Watts & Wheels S1E2: ‘China attacks, BMW digs in, Toyota’s sublime supercar’

Chinese car makers continue their rapid push into the South African market, raising uncomfortable questions for incumbents. With aggressive pricing, fast product cycles and increasingly polished vehicles, the competitive landscape is shifting faster than many expected. There is also an update on Stellantis’s manufacturing plans and what they could mean…
23 Jan 38 min