All customers have the right to expect trust and respect over the use and handling of their personal data, however as a new study by Mastercard has revealed, non-binary individuals face discrimination in their financial experiences.
The damning results of the study show that while the finance and banking sector continues to enhance systems of on-boarding to collect new consumers, there is less consideration towards how personal data is safeguarded and treated. Only 68% of the transgender community have the correct ID featuring the name and gender they identity as and 19% of non-binary individuals have experienced prejudice when making payments in shops, presenting their ID or having to navigate intrusive questions.
The ‘True Name’ Initiative started by Mastercard in the U.S. in 2019 has in pleasant contrast to other financial services, acted upon calls from the LGBTQ+ community to allow these customers to change and use their true identifiers on cards without legally having to change their name and gender.
The recent research is backed up by previous findings in January of this year which concluded that nearly 50% of transgender or non-binary people feel anxiety, embarrassment and frustration when using their formal ID that doesn’t reflect their gender marker.
The True Name campaign allows customers to easily transition to being their true gender or identity when making payments and running errands in everyday life, as well as to avoid the expensive, time-consuming process of legally changing their gender.
Jennifer Douglas, Head of North American Retail and Small Business Payments at BMO says: “Helping customers make real financial progress is important, and that starts with providing safe and accessible banking to our customers by removing barriers to inclusion”.
More U.S. banks have followed suit including Citibank, Marqeta, and The Republic Bank to support simplified on-boarding of these individuals, using the name and gender they identity as.
During this Pride month, Mastercard also launched The Belle Block program, an industry group to encourage women and non-binary individuals to use Web 3.0 technology and cryptocurrency.
