<p>The first LGBT+-owned and targeted digital banking platform launched in the United States this week, part of a growing effort to meet the needs of gay and transgender customers.</p>.<p>Daylight, the new platform, said it has developed tools and content to help LGBT+ Americans reach specific financial goals such as saving money for surrogacy or gender transition surgery, and to make banking more inclusive.</p>.<p>The nation's estimated 9 million LGBT+ people wield some $1 trillion in collective spending power but are mostly underserved by banks that fail to tap into their assets or address their interests, Daylight Chief Executive Rob Curtis said.</p>.<p>"While it's wonderful that financial service companies join us in Pride marches, too few have absorbed our community's critical challenges," he said in a statement.</p>.<p>Entrepreneurs in Brazil established the country's first bank for LGBT+ people, Pride Bank, last year, and the first credit union designed for the LGBT+ community, Superbia Credit Union, is expected to launch in the United States later this year.</p>.<p>"We are working to create a more inclusive and accessible financial ecosystem ... for those who have long been underrepresented," said Terry Angelos, a senior vice president at credit card company Visa, which is backing the effort, in a statement.</p>.<p>Daylight will offer prepaid credit cards in customers' preferred names, addressing a thorny issue for transgender people who use names different from those given at birth.</p>.<p>It also will provide financial coaches trained to handle LGBT+-specific needs.</p>.<p>Daylight plans to begin offering services officially in mid-December.</p>
<p>The first LGBT+-owned and targeted digital banking platform launched in the United States this week, part of a growing effort to meet the needs of gay and transgender customers.</p>.<p>Daylight, the new platform, said it has developed tools and content to help LGBT+ Americans reach specific financial goals such as saving money for surrogacy or gender transition surgery, and to make banking more inclusive.</p>.<p>The nation's estimated 9 million LGBT+ people wield some $1 trillion in collective spending power but are mostly underserved by banks that fail to tap into their assets or address their interests, Daylight Chief Executive Rob Curtis said.</p>.<p>"While it's wonderful that financial service companies join us in Pride marches, too few have absorbed our community's critical challenges," he said in a statement.</p>.<p>Entrepreneurs in Brazil established the country's first bank for LGBT+ people, Pride Bank, last year, and the first credit union designed for the LGBT+ community, Superbia Credit Union, is expected to launch in the United States later this year.</p>.<p>"We are working to create a more inclusive and accessible financial ecosystem ... for those who have long been underrepresented," said Terry Angelos, a senior vice president at credit card company Visa, which is backing the effort, in a statement.</p>.<p>Daylight will offer prepaid credit cards in customers' preferred names, addressing a thorny issue for transgender people who use names different from those given at birth.</p>.<p>It also will provide financial coaches trained to handle LGBT+-specific needs.</p>.<p>Daylight plans to begin offering services officially in mid-December.</p>