Effective date: 31 January 2018

Our commitment

This is the privacy policy of Police Bank Ltd (ABN 95 087 650 799). We value your trust in us as a member-owned bank. It is important for us to keep your information secure. As a bank it is also important for us to keep your information confidential. To achieve this we will comply with the Privacy Act 1988, the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Credit Reporting Privacy Code (CR code). The Privacy Act 1988 sets out how we are to collect, use, disclose and store personal, credit and credit eligibility information. The Privacy Act 1988 also requires us to have a privacy policy.

Sometimes we update our Privacy Policy. The current version will be on our website. We encourage you to review our website regularly to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

 

Outline of our Policy

Our Policy sets out:

  • what information we collect and hold
  • how we deal with credit information
  • how we collect and hold information
  • why we collect, hold, use and disclose your information
  • how you can access your information
  • how you can correct your information
  • how you can make a complaint
  • how we will deal with your complaint
  • in what overseas countries we are likely to disclose your information.

 

Information we collect and hold

We will collect and hold your information. This may include:

  • your personal information (any information which identifies you or from which you may be identifiable, such as: your name, date of birth, contact details and evidence of identity)
  • your tax file number
  • passwords, passcodes and secret questions used to confirm your authorisation of a transaction
  • your PayID, PayID Name and account details
  • credit and debits to your accounts
  • information about your membership of a professional association which is a requirement for you to become a member
  • other personal information, such as details of your interactions with us.

When you apply for a loan we will also collect and hold your credit information, such as:

  • information about your financial position, identification information, repayment history
  • your current credit history, including default & payment information
  • credit eligibility information (such as information derived about you from a credit reporting body).

We will only collect information that is related to our providing, or arranging others to provide:

  • banking products and services
  • financial advisory services
  • financial accommodation
  • general insurance
  • travel services.

If we need sensitive information about you – such as information about your religion, ethnicity, health or biometrics (for example, your finger prints or face) – we will ask for your permission.

 

How we collect your information

We will collect information about you and your financial position from you directly.

When you apply for a loan, we will collect information about your credit history from a credit reporting body.

If you do not wish to give us the information we may require, we may not be able to provide you with the service or product that you have requested.

 

Credit Information

We may collect credit information or credit eligibility information about you from Equifax. We may also disclose your credit information to Equifax.

We collect your credit information from Equifax to allow us to assess your application and your credit worthiness.

We may also exchange personal information and credit information about you with other credit providers in the assessing your application and your credit worthiness.

We may notify other credit providers of any defaults by you.

You can view a copy of the privacy policy of Equifax here: https://www.equifax.com.au/privacy

 

What information do we use from your credit report?

We use your credit report to check if what you have told us about your financial history is correct. We look at the following information:

  • what are your current loans
  • what loans have you applied for
  • if available, your repayment history on any loans and your default history
  • any payment defaults reported by service providers such as telcos and energy companies
  • whether there are any Court judgments against you
  • whether you are, or have recently been, a bankrupt
  • whether you have committed any serious credit infringements.

Your credit report will usually only contain information from the past 5 years. It may contain information from up to the past 7 years if you have committed a serious credit infringement. We may ask you to explain why your credit report differs from what you have told us about your financial history.

 

Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose your information for a number of reasons, such as to:

  • maintain the Bank’s register of members
  • confirm or verify your identity
  • assess your application for a product or a service
  • when you apply for a loan – to establish your eligibility for a loan and your capacity to repay
  • provide membership benefits, services and products or information about those benefits, services and products
  • process payments
  • to maintain PayID registrations through the New Payments Platform addressing service
  • design, manage and price our membership benefits, services and products
  • give you information about services and products from third parties with which we have agreements
  • manage our relationship with you
  • conduct market and demographic research in relation to the products and services our members acquire from us
  • keep track of products or services you view on our website using cookies, if your settings allow it, so that we can send you information and advertising about those products or services
  • contact you to assist you to complete online applications you have started and not submitted. Personal information provided in these applications is destroyed after 90 days
  • minimise risks and identify or investigate fraud and other illegal activities
  • improve our service to you
  • comply with laws, and assist government and law enforcement agencies
  • manage our business.

 

Marketing Opt Out

From time-to-time, we may also use your information to tell you about products and services we think you might be interested in.

If you do not want to be contacted by us for direct marketing purposes, you can opt out by:

Cookies

Our Website Terms of Use provide more information about cookies, how they are used by Police Bank, and how you can adjust your settings to not use them.

Who we disclose your information to

When you have a loan with us, we may disclose the following information to a credit reporting body:

  • the fact that you have applied for a loan
  • details of the loan, when approved
  • when payments are due
  • whether you have paid on time
  • when you actually paid.

We may also disclose your information to other entities such as:

  • entities that verify identity
  • our third party contractors or agents
  • security entities that minimise risks and block suspicious behaviour, such as Google reCaptcha
  • lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, brokers, advisers and agents who represent you
  • contractors who do some of our work for us, including statement printing and mail out, card and cheque production, market research or direct marketing
  • affiliated product and service suppliers to provide information to you about their services and products
  • credit reporting bodies and other financial institutions that have previously lent to you
  • persons you use as referees
  • for property loans – property valuers and insurers
  • mortgage documentation service
  • trustee and manager of securitised loan programs
  • any proposed guarantor of a loan
  • debt collection agencies, lawyers, process servers
  • our auditors or insurers
  • people who help us process claims – like assessors and investigators
  • other banks and financial institutions – for example, if we need to process a claim for mistaken or misdirected payment
  • other people (like cardholders) using the same account

We will also disclose your information to law enforcement, regulatory bodies and government agencies as required by law.

 

How we hold your information

We hold your information in our systems, databases and archives. We have security systems to guard against unauthorised access. We also limit access to our employees on a needs basis. We will destroy or de-identify information when we no longer need it. Although we take reasonable measures to guard against interference, when information is transmitted, we cannot guarantee its security.

 

Disclosure to overseas recipients

We may disclose your information to third parties that are based overseas for processing. These third parties are located in the United States.  Where we do this, we make sure there are arrangements in place to protect your information.

 

Links to other websites

Sometimes our website may contain a link to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content or material contained in, or obtained through, any third party website or for the privacy practices of the third party website. We suggest that you review the privacy policy of each website that you visit.

 

Data breach notification

We may notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commission if we have reasonable grounds to believe that:

  • there has been unauthorised access or disclosure of your personal information, or that your information has been lost in a way that is likely to give rise to unauthorised access or disclosure; and
  • there is a likely risk of serious harm as a result of the unauthorised access or disclosure.

If we notify you of a breach, where possible we will provide recommendations as to the steps you should take regarding the breach.

 

How you can access and/or correct your information

You can request access to your information at any time. If the information we hold is incorrect, you can request us to correct it. You can make a request by contacting us:

We do not currently charge any fees for giving you access to your information. We may charge a document retrieval fee to cover the costs of retrieving and making copies but we will disclose the estimated costs beforehand when you make the request.

 

Making a complaint

You may make a complaint to us if you consider that we have not complied with the relevant provisions of the APPs or relevant credit reporting provisions the Privacy Act. You can complain:

We will deal with your complaint under our internal dispute resolution procedure. We will give you a copy of our Complaints Handling & Dispute Resolution Guide when you make your complaint. We are also part of an external dispute resolution scheme. If you are not satisfied with how we handled your complaint, you can take the matter there. We will tell you at the time how you can contact the external dispute resolution scheme.

If you are still not satisfied with the way in which your enquiry or complaint has been handled, you can contact the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner on Tel: 1300 363 992 or email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

You can also access our Privacy Notification here.