Citi sees no slowdown in True Name card demand

The initial rush of Citigroup customers signing up for the Mastercard True Name program — which lets transgender and nonbinary customers to use their chosen name on credit cards — has not abated.

Eight months after Citi debuted the feature, more than 10,000 customers have signed up for True Name at a rate that has remained fairly steady since 1,600 Citi customers signed up for the program in the first few weeks after its October 2020 rollout.

“There was a lot of take-up of True Name at the launch and that level of interest has continued,” said Nikki Darden, Citi’s director of global consumer marketing.

Other issuers support the Mastercard feature as well. BMO Harris Bank, a Chicago unit of BMO Financial in Toronto, was the first to roll out True Name in 2019, and recently Bunq in Europe launched True Name. In addition, a 42-branch Kentucky financial institution became the first community bank to come aboard.

Mastercard said this month that it is white-labeling True Name through partnerships with Global Payments’ TSYS card processing subsidiary and BM Technologies, expanding the concept's reach to different markets nationwide.

Research from A National Center for Transgender Equality suggests a third of transgender people have reported harassment or denial of service when trying to make a purchase using a name or “gender marker” that doesn’t reflect their appearance, according to Darden.

Nearly 70% of people identifying as transgender report that none of their identification documents display their chosen name, she added.

“Changing your name legally can be very expensive, and many transgender customers who are marginalized don’t have those kind of resources, so True Name provides a solution for them that doesn’t cost extra,” Darden said.

More than 200,000 customers have visited the section of Citi’s website describing True Name and how it works, and Citi has continued its organizationwide training and marketing to make sure transgender and nonbinary customers are greeted by their chosen first name, Darden said.

Customers’ legal names are still part of the account file, but Citi prioritizes use of True Name program members’ chosen names for customer service.

“The True Name customer sees or hears their chosen first name used on all corporate touchpoints, from the call center to the website to the mobile app,” Darden said.

The urgency to provide transgender customers with options to use their chosen name seems to have intensified in recent months as awareness of transgender issues grows, Darden suggested.

Citi cited data last year suggesting that roughly 1% of the U.S. population identifies as transgender, but the actual numbers may be higher now.

Overall, about 6% of the population identifies as LGBTQ+, but up to 16% of younger adults in the Generation Z demographic say they are LGBTQ, according to Darden.

“This is not such a niche issue anymore — it’s who we are now,” she said.

Citi launched True Name last year with a TV commercial featuring transgender cast members and a transgender director. That spot has continued to air as Citi markets True Name through more media channels, according to Darden.

Periodically, Citi touts the True Name option on the company’s core website, and customers can easily access more information when they do a search within the site, she said.

“In my view, giving consumers the opportunity to use their chosen name is the right thing to do, but it’s also becoming an existential fact that many people identify differently than their legal name,” Darden said.