Sabrina Hill in downtown St. Catharines, Ont., on Oct. 12. Ms. Hill, who has been out as a trans woman since her early twenties, says her deadname pops up regularly when she's using financial services, despite a legal name change.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
Sabrina Hill, 43, who has been out as a trans woman since her early 20s, legally changed her name in 2018. That doesn’t stop her old name from popping up regularly, though, at places including the pharmacy and the doctor’s office, and throughout financial services and banking.
“It is traumatizing to hear a name you abandoned,” said Ms. Hill, a resident of St. Catharines, Ont., and a provincial civil servant. Pushback on her identity also comes frequently through call-centre workers, who – upon hearing her voice – accuse her of not actually being Sabrina. “On days when I am not fully exhausted … I’ll snap back.“
As the challenges facing trans and non-binary people slowly gain greater understanding, many in those communities say their interactions with banks and financial services remain a pain point in their lives. Whether it’s before they’ve legally changed their names, or even after, many say their “deadnames” tend to follow them in a way that is damaging and unnecessary. Some say they feel constantly on guard when using payment cards bearing legal names that don’t match how they look.
“I don’t want to answer those questions … at the Sunoco gas station,” said Ms. Hill, noting trans people will often use cash to avoid such a confrontation. “For that Sunoco worker, it’s once a year. But for that trans person, it’s every time they have a transaction.”
Canadian regulations require banks to use government-issued identification to start new accounts or make changes to existing ones. However, banks and credit-card companies have more leeway when it comes to what appears on credit and bank cards. While some financial institutions don’t display a name on debit cards, others – such as Vancity credit union – will issue a bank card in a user’s preferred name if it is different from the legal name on the account, spokesperson Shannon Miller said.
Earlier this year, Bank of Montreal (BMO) drew fanfare among LGBTQ communities with its introduction of the True Name MasterCard. The card, which displays a user’s preferred name without requiring a legal name change, has been available through BMO Harris Bank in the United States and 30 markets in the European Union for some time, said Shawna Miller, marketing vice-president for MasterCard Canada.
BMO declined to share the number of Canadians who have adopted the card since its spring launch.
“The preferred name will be reflected on their credit card, statements, as well as some other correspondence,” Jennifer Douglas, BMO’s head of North American retail and small business payments, said in an e-mailed statement. “An alert will be placed on the customer’s profile that will pop up notifying the next BMO staff servicing them that the customer has a preferred name that should be used. All front-line staff have been trained and will be reminded on a regular basis.
“The legal name may still be referenced in specific situations, for example, for authentication and some account management letters.”
Such a lack of uniformity, where some parts of the bank’s system feature her current identity and others use her deadname, is still something Ms. Hill faces on occasion even though she has changed her name legally. She says that while applying for a student line of credit at her local CIBC branch within the past two years she could see her former name displayed on one of the bank’s screens.
“There’s no reason that name should exist,” she says. “I walked into that branch in 2018 with an official name change and a reprinted birth certificate. As far as I am concerned, my bank should have deleted any reference to that old information. ... There’s no reason I should see my birth name on any document printed contemporarily.”
CIBC did not comment on Ms. Hill’s specific situation. Spokesperson Trish Tervit sent a statement saying the company strives “to be a bank that is welcoming and shows genuine care for each of our clients, including our clients who identify as transgender or non-binary. We have taken steps to make our bank more inclusive, including removing gender from our validation process, educating team members about barriers faced by trans and non-binary clients, updating our systems and partnering with organizations that support the LGBTQ+ community.”
Ms. Tervit says the company made updates several years ago that include allowing “X” as a gender identifier and the gender-neutral title Mx.
Vancity says it has made similar changes: removing the need to include title and gender fields when opening an account, adding the option to use Mx. if desired, and adding a field for “preferred name” in its core banking system. Ms. Miller says the credit union is still working to standardize all of its products, documents and forms to “ensure there is no discrepancy” regarding preferred names.
“Every Vancity employee takes a required training course on sexual identity,” she added, noting it is “taught by a human-rights lawyer and activist who identifies as trans. The components cover terms and meanings such as assigned sex, gender expression, pronouns, as well as deadnaming and misgendering. The training emphasizes what is not okay, as well as best practices for addressing Vancity members.” Ms. Miller says training is provided on a regular basis.
Making sure these discussions are continuing, instead of a one-shot deal, is important, says Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada. The organization has been pushing for banks and benefits providers to improve their policies and training when it comes to better serving trans and non-binary clients, and has heard from many such folks who feel exhausted by the effort of educating their banks on their identities.
How workplaces get trans inclusion wrong – and what they can do to make it right
Changing the culture of a large organization such as a bank takes commitment, she said, adding that part of that work means trying to attract members of those communities to be employees by regularly updating onboarding, training and recruitment processes. Ms. Kennedy notes that big banks have the resources required to properly train their staff, it just takes strong leadership on the issue.
“It’s great the banks put out the announcements, but at the same time, you have to do the work inside the institution,” she said.
Are you a young Canadian with money on your mind? To set yourself up for success and steer clear of costly mistakes, listen to our award-winning Stress Test podcast.