Mastercard partners bpost and Nickel to launch inclusive card options

Payments giant Mastercard has partnered with Belgium’s postal operator bpost to offer trans and non-binary people the option to personalise their bank card with the first name of their choice through its True Name functionality.

Mastercard to roll out True Name and Touch Card offerings

Mastercard’s Touch Card offering will also be adopted, which adds a triangular notch to cards to make them easier to use for blind and visually impaired people. It’s estimated that one in 1,000 Belgians are blind and one in 100 are visually impaired, with those numbers set to rise.

The inclusive options will be rolled out in Belgium at the end of this year, the firms say.

Mastercard’s senior vice president for marketing in Europe Jeannette Liendo says the partnership demonstrates bpost’s commitment to making the banking and financial sector more inclusive.

“This is not only a first in Belgium, but also in the world, since the Touch Card functionality will be associated with that of True Name for the very first time. We also call on other industry players to apply these standards for everyone.”

French challenger Nickel is also set to roll out the True Name option for its customers in France and Spain from January 2023. Nickel will extend True Name to all its Belgian and Portuguese clients by Q2 2023.

The firm says the move will help to “ease a major pain point for the transgender and non-binary communities”.

“Beyond financial and economic inclusion, we believe it is essential to address gender inclusion to ensure that our transgender and/or non-binary customers feel accepted and included,” says Marie Degrand-Guillaud, deputy CEO of Nickel.

“This starts with being able to display the name they most identify with when they make a purchase with their Mastercard cards.”