The community-inspired card design empowers customers to turn simple payments into meaningful actions.

Since U.S. Bank launched our LGBTQ+ community-inspired debit card design three years ago, it has become a point of Pride in the wallets of more than 250,000 customers who have collectively swiped it more than 100 million times.

“The card empowers our customers to share their Pride,” said Steve Ducos, LGBTQ+ segment strategy lead at U.S. Bank. “With every transaction, they send a powerful message in our communities, reaffirming that all people are equal and that our diversity should be celebrated.”

Not only is promoting diversity, equity and inclusion the right thing to do, the past three years have also shown that customers with the card are more likely to use it than those with traditional and even other themed card designs.

“Creating customized experiences such as the debit card help to break down financial barriers for LGBTQ+ people and inspires other companies to do the same,” said Ducos. 

Although that customized experience has become more digital in nature amid the COVID-19 pandemic, customers have been able to add the card to mobile wallets such as Apple Pay to keep the colorful display of Pride at their fingertips. 

Whether in digital or physical wallets, the design is the result of a nationwide contest in which hundreds of LGTBQ+ community members and allies submitted artwork that went up for a vote on social media. 

The winning submission was created by ally Olivia Ogba, who said her rainbow fireworks design was purposefully patriotic in nature, as she created it not long after same-sex marriage was declared legal nationwide by the Supreme Court.

Ogba, who immigrated to the United States from Nigeria with her parents when she was 5 years old, explained that it represents “the ability for everyone to go after the American dream without any sort of discrimination.”

Across the country, that ability has come into the spotlight through protests of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police as well as other injustices. With Pride having been born out of protests against police brutality and Black Lives Matter having been founded by members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community, the movements have long been intertwined and have again taken the form of a protest in solidarity. 

The Spectrum business resource group at U.S. Bank, too, has shifted its message this month to one of listening, learning and allyship, as well as hosting events to amplify Black LGBTQ+ voices. The company, meanwhile, has committed more than $100 million toward addressing social and economic inequalities.

For Ducos and leaders at U.S. Bank, taking action to drive change, promote equality and celebrate diversity is fundamental to the mission of the company.

“At U.S. Bank, we exist to power human potential,” Ducos said.