Citi expands transgender-friendly True Name program to debit cards

Nearly two years after enabling transgender people and other customers to use their preferred name on credit cards, Citigroup is expanding the option to debit cards for the first time.

Citi is the largest bank to broadly expand its chosen-name feature to debit cards after Mastercard first announced the True Name program in 2019.

Beginning Monday, Citi's debit customers can call Citi or visit a Citi branch to use their preferred name on their debit card instead of their legal name.

The move is a response to data suggesting that about 70% of transgender and nonbinary individuals say their official identity doesn't match their chosen name. Many transgender people call their old identity their deadname.

Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Since Citi introduced the customized credit card option to credit card users in 2020, roughly 31,000 of its customers have updated their chosen first name on their Citi credit card, according to the bank. Citi expects a similarly strong response from debit card users. 

"We're excited to take another big step forward with our commitment to keeping our bank and our branches a safe and inclusive environment for our colleagues and customers alike," Craig Vallorano, Citi's head of U.S. retail banking, said in a press release.

Although several other banks, including BMO Harris Bank in Chicago and Republic Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, have also adopted Mastercard's white-label True Name program for credit cards — and some credit unions offer similar options — customized debit cards are still relatively rare.

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Citi has also trained its customer service representatives to ask customers how they prefer to be addressed and taken other steps to ensure transgender and nonbinary customers are recognized by their chosen name at every bank interaction.

Certain neobanks have made it a priority to recognize customers' true names at the core account level and across all bank communications.

The Pew Research Center last year found that 42% of U.S. consumers said they know someone personally who was transgender.