True Name began with the lived experience of a member of our team, who is transgender. When a deli merchant called out his order based on the name on his card (his “dead name,”), his safety was put at risk.

He knew someone needed to change the system, but the system in question was the banking system. And implementing even the smallest change within a financial institution can seem insurmountable.

Launching True Name meant monumental systemic change, from regulatory approvals, to infrastructure overhauls, and complex security clearances.

So we took a risky step – we launched without a customer, confident people would demand the card from their banks.

People responded – passionately. And the banks listened, because we helped them navigate all the changes necessary to make True Name a reality.

Mastercard doesn’t issue credit cards. Banks do. Mastercard makes cards work, but banks own the cards, the cardholder relationships, and the credit.

We needed to convince the banks that introducing a significant change like True Name, was not only possible but critical to their customers and their own future.

So we took a risky first step – we launched True Name without a customer, confident that people would create a demand no bank could ignore.

Consumers responded as passionately as we had hoped.

But banks have a long established – and onerous – way of doing business and are skeptical of change. Launching True Name meant they would need to undergo monumental systemic change, from regulatory approvals, to infrastructure overhauls, and complex security clearances.

And yet – the banks understood the potential of True Name. They knew it was the right thing to do, and worth doing.

We couldn’t just introduce a new card, we had to introduce a new system.

We started with the people True Name serves, the transgender, non-binary, and LGBTQIA2S+ community. We worked with them to understand their experience when using a card – from small moments of frustration to traumatic moments of fear.

Banks, by their very nature, are transactional. And while they wanted to introduce our card, they didn’t understand the depth of what they were committing to. People at the front lines don’t understand the very real impact of a system that doesn’t recognize your true self and doesn’t understand the fear that can hit when you hand your card over to a waiter.

We had to work through every single point in the banking experience, from typing into a chat bot to a greeting when you walk into a branch to talk about a mortgage.

Everything had to adapt.

Using your card shouldn’t put your life at risk. Or create even a moment of fear and mental anguish.

Yet for transgender and non-binary people, that’s exactly what can happen when a person’s “dead” name is used on a card instead of their chosen name. In fact, 32% of transgender people who’ve used a card with a name or gender that didn’t match their gender presentation have been verbally harassed, denied service, or assaulted.

So we did something bold. Something that, in a truly inclusive world, wouldn’t be bold at all.

We created the capability for cards to represent people’s true self, ensuring no one would be placed at risk while using one, or feel the pain of being unseen and misunderstood. This innovation became True Name, an industry first feature.

Our 2021 campaign ran during Pride Month, and gained 266.2 million impressions overall and 121.8 million impressions on social. Many of those impressions were earned at the time and place we could reach the people True Name was created to help–NYC Pride.

We shared the poignant, personal stories of our cardholders and how True Name impacted their lives on social media. These stories resonated with consumers, leading to 1.2 million clicks and a 0.82% engagement rate, exceeding benchmarks.

Our branded content on QDigital gave us the opportunity to tell True Name’s story in more depth and helped explain all the benefits associated with the card, and it too resonated well with a .29% click through rate.

Considering the risk we took in launching the card without a single customer, it was validating to see our campaign not only generating headlines globally, but also pushing competitors and industry leaders like Visa to follow our example.

New deployments include BM Technologies, Inc. (BMTX), Republic Bank, One Finance, T-Mobile Money, FIS, TSYS, and Marqueta. True Name is also expanding in the European market, with the card feature now available via challenger bank bunq in 30 markets, and BMO Harris recently expanding their implementation in Canada.

Mastercard is transforming an industry wary of change, one card and one name at a time.