Banking major HSBC’s UK arm is pushing for more inclusive services for non-binary and trans customers, Bloomberg reported.
To this end, the bank is planning to do away with the practice of collecting data on the gender of customers across some offerings.
According to the firm’s spokesperson, HSBC UK has already removed references to gender in some of its products including HSBC Kinetic, a mobile-first banking business account and its tool for mortgages in principle.
The move is part of the bank’s wider review of inclusivity of offerings, and it is exploring additional changes.
“The concept of gender is evolving at a societal level, and we are looking at how it is relevant for our sector,” HSBC UK Pride Employee Network co-chair Jimmy Higgins was quoted by the publication as saying.
“There is no reason we should be capturing information for a bank account or a loan if it is not relevant.”
Lenders are putting in an effort to make their products more inclusive to accommodate trans customers. Earlier, the Bank of Montreal began offering bank cards for non-binary customers after Citigroup announced a similar move.
The news comes amid the ongoing debate over gender in the US and the UK.
Firms that take a bold stance on gender identity will need to stand their ground when challenges come their way, said LGBT Great founder and global managing director, Matt Cameron.
LGBT Great is an organisation that works with the likes of Citigroup and BlackRock.
Cameron added that increasing numbers of young people are identifying as LGBT+.
“Organisations that are bold on LGBT+ inclusion will be those that build more trust, attract broader talent and appeal to a broader customer base.”
Additionally, the UK-based bank has a research programme to track the inclusiveness of its offerings.
Furthermore, it has updated the legacy systems to make it easy for customers to change their names and replaced the labels “husband” and “wife” with “spouse.”