A spokesperson for the company said it has begun removing gender references from some of its products, such as HSBC Kinetic, the first commercial bank’s mobile phone account. This step marks the beginning of a wide-ranging review process, aimed at making the bank’s products more exclusive, he writes Bloomberg.
Concepts related to gender change at the social level, we study the importance of this from the point of view of our sector
Jamie Higgins, co-chair of the HSBC UK Pride employee network, said in a circular email.
There is no reason to attach this information (gender ID) to a bank account or loan if it is not relevant
he added.
The bank’s decision to include trans identity in its products is not at all surprising. The Bank of Montreal began selling cards to non-binary people last month, following in the footsteps of Citigroup. At the same time, in the United States and the United Kingdom, the issue of gender roles is causing an increasingly heated social debate, and the actions of banks are also the factors implicated in many of the tensions.
Ending the collection of gender data raises the question of how to detect other forms of discrimination without it. It’s a well-known fact that women have a harder time getting any type of credit than their male counterparts, and according to a Credit Karma survey last year, getting a loan costs women £16,913 ($20,318) more than men. Many couples take out loans and mortgages in the name of the male partner, which means that the woman has a poor credit history, despite working full time and contributing to the repayment.
When someone goes to a bank and says they need to borrow X amount, these biases really come into play
said Akancha Nath, Head of Partnerships UK and Canada at Credit Karma.
HSBC has already scaled back name change procedures to make the process easier for transgender customers, removing the designations ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ and replacing them with the word ‘husband’.
