Why a Kentucky-based bank launched a 'true name' card for transgender, nonbinary users
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For Ashley Duncan, the director of inclusion and diversity and a vice president at Republic Bank, giving all employees "a vehicle to be a consistent voice at the executive table" has been a priority since joining the bank in September 2020.
So when employees in the company's Pride business resource group — which includes people in the LGBTQ community — discussed an idea to allow transgender and nonbinary customers to use their self-identified chosen first names on their credit cards, Duncan said she took it straight to leadership.
"Without hesitation, they said, 'Let's do it,'" said Duncan, who previously served as the first diversity hiring specialist for Jefferson County Public Schools.
On June 1, through a partnership with financial services giant Mastercard, the Louisville-based Republic Bank launched its True Name debit cards for customers, allowing them to use their chosen names without the requirement of a legal name change.
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Republic Bank is the first community bank and the third bank in the nation to have launched this product, according to Duncan. She said the cards are essential so transgender and nonbinary customers can make purchases without being called by their deadnames, or names that they were given at birth they no longer use.
"People need to have a basic function of buying a gallon of milk or flowers for their partner and not have to be reintroduced to trauma, which is what a lot of people who identify as trans and nonbinary have to deal with in basic purchases," Duncan said. "It's just not something that we want to have attached to our customers and associates."
Roughly 1,100 employees work for Republic Bank, and it has more than 100,000 clients across 42 full-service banking centers throughout five states, including 28 in Kentucky and three in Southern Indiana.
Duncan declined to say how many Republic Bank customers are using the True Name debit card "to maintain proprietary information" but said that the response to the product has been "overwhelmingly positive."
Customers interested in the True Name feature on Republic Bank debit cards can request a card by calling 888-584-3600, and more information is available at republicbank.com/truename.
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Mastercard announced the True Name feature in 2019, and Citibank and BMO Harris Bank began to offer the feature in 2020.
Cheryl Guerin, the executive vice president of marketing and communications for Mastercard, said in a statement that "our commitment for True Name is to reach a point where every card, everywhere is enabled with the feature as we believe in empowering people to show up as they are."
“We are honored to have Republic Bank join us in this journey, helping us to further extend the reach and impact of the True Name initiative," Guerin said.
Duncan gave some credit for the new True Name feature to Steve Trager, the chairman and CEO of Republic Bank, who she said "is fully bought-in and fully supportive of the work."
“As a community bank, we’re here to serve the entire community,” Trager said. “Enabling this feature builds on our inclusion and diversity efforts within each of the communities where we do business.
Follow Ben Tobin on Twitter: @Ben__Tobin.