What are the biggest challenges, concerns, and factors that impact LGBTQ financial consumers in 2023?
A wide-ranging survey by the Center for American Progress (CAP) from the beginning of the year actually sheds some light on the relationship between financial services themselves and the LGBTQ community. This knowledge can help guide banks, fintechs, and financial services providers better tailor their products, services, and experiences for a more diverse customer base.
Here’s one interesting example. The LGBTQ respondents tended to have higher employment rates compared to the non-LGBTQ respondents. At the same time, members of the LGBTQ community were more likely than members of the non-LGBTQ community to be engaged in part-time, freelance, or gig economy work. In the latter category, LGBTQ respondents outnumbered non-LGBTQ respondents 5% to 1%. With regard to transgender respondents, they were twice as likely as non-transgender respondents to report working part time.
These survey results have significant implications for financial services companies. Among other things, the responses underscore the importance of mobile and remote access to financial services. This includes features like virtual assistants to ensure 24/7/365 service for workers with atypical or irregular working hours. Offerings like Earned Wage Access can help workers smooth out irregular cash flows for part-time workers. Additionally, LGBTQ respondents to the CAP survey reported incomes that were on average lower than those of non-LGBTQ respondents. Providing cash flow services can be a way of helping this community avoid the temptation of more costly and potentially predatory financing options.
These responses also suggest a new approach for financing and lending services companies. In order to compete, they may need to think differently about creditworthy potential borrowers who don’t have traditional employment histories. The trend toward an embrace of alternative data in credit scoring is a good development, and one that is likely to benefit LGBTQ communities. The same is true about initiatives to deal with the challenge of bias in AI.
Both as workers in the financial services industry and consumers of financial services, members of the LGBTQ community suffer from discrimination and harassment. This can range from verbal harassment to the denial of equal access to services. While many companies in the financial services industry have been commended for their LGBTQ-friendly policies and environments, ensuring that the financial services workplace is free from anti-LGBTQ behavior is important for both workers and customers alike.
Photo by Markus Spiske
