Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy contains important information about your personal information.

About this policy;
Collection;
Use and disclosure;
Overseas transactions;
Access and correction;
Opting out of product promotions;
Storage and security of your personal information;
Our website and the use of cookies;
Changes to this policy;
Privacy concerns or complaints;
Contacting us;
Further information about privacy

About this policy

This Privacy Policy sets out how the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Group safeguards your privacy. In this policy, the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Group (“we”) includes:

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited;
Bendigo Bank subsidiary companies including Sandhurst Trustees Limited, Victorian Securities Corporation Limited, National Mortgage Market Corporation, Bendigo Financial Planning and Oxford Funding;
Bendigo Bank agencies; and
Bendigo Bank franchises (including Community Bank branches).

We are committed to ensuring your privacy is protected and understand your concerns regarding the confidentiality and security of personal information you provide to us.

Most organisations in Australia must comply with the 10 National Privacy Principles. We are bound by and comply with these principles.

This policy has been developed to follow a ‘layered’ policy format which means that it offers layers of detail. You can therefore read as much or as little as you like and can find what you need quicker.

If all you want is a snapshot of how we handle your personal information, you can look at our Condensed Privacy Policy which sets out in summary how we collect, use and disclose your personal information, and how you can contact us if you want to access or correct your personal information.

If you would like a more comprehensive explanation of how we handle your personal information, then this document will provide you with that detail.

Collection

We usually collect personal information directly from you. Sometimes we collect or confirm this information from a third party such as a credit reporting agency. We will have used reasonable efforts to obtain your consent to do this.

We collect personal information that includes details such as your:

Name;
address;
date of birth;
contact details (such as phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses); and
financial information about you such as information about your use of financial products and services which you acquire from or through us.

In some cases, we may need to collect sensitive information from you (such as health related information). In these circumstances we will ask for your consent to collect that information if the National Privacy Principles require that we do so.

For the purposes of complying with our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and related Rules, we may also collect personal information about you from commercially available third party databases. Where you are not a customer of ours you may still seek confirmation as to whether we hold information in relation to you.

Use and disclosure

We use your personal information in order to:

provide you with financial products and services (including situations where we are an agent for another product issuer);
assist you with your queries or concerns;
comply with any legal or regulatory obligations imposed on us including complying with our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and related rules; or
perform our regular and necessary business functions (such as internal audit investigations, performance reporting, research, product development and planning.)

To do this, we may disclose your personal information to organisations that carry out functions on the Group's behalf. This may include for example:

mailing houses;
cheque and electronic transaction processors; and
information technology service providers.

Confidentiality agreements with these entities ensure this information is only used to carry out functions on our behalf.

Depending upon the type of product you have requested, we may also disclose your personal information to credit reporting agencies, the trustee or manager of a superannuation fund and insurance companies.

Your personal information may also be shared within the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Group and our joint venture partners so that you can be told about other financial products and services offered or distributed by us. You can opt out of receiving this information (see below – ‘opting out of product promotions’).

We do not sell your personal information to outside companies.

Where we have collected your personal information on behalf of another party (for example, where we are an agent for another product issuer) the use of your personal information by that party is governed by their privacy policy. You should contact them to understand how they might use your personal information.

Overseas transactions

In some cases, your personal information may be transferred overseas. For example, when you instruct us to carry out a transaction such as a telegraphic transfer to or from an overseas country. We will only transfer your personal information overseas with your consent or in a way which is otherwise consistent with our obligations under the Privacy Act.

Access and correction

In most cases you will be able to gain access to personal information about you held by us.

We will also take reasonable steps to amend or correct your personal information to keep it accurate and up-to-date. Our Customer Help Centre will co-ordinate requests relating to access and correction of your personal information (see ‘Contacting us’ below).

Opting out of product promotions

You can opt out of receiving marketing material from us at any time.

If you do opt out, we will continue to provide information in relation to your existing accounts or facilities only (including new features or products related to these accounts/facilities).

Storage and security of your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to keep the personal information that we hold about you secure to ensure that it is protected from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure.

Your personal information is stored within secure systems that are protected in controlled facilities. Our employees and authorised agents are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us.

Our website and the use of cookies

Our website is protected by 128-bit encryption technology.

We use Cookies on our website. Cookies can make using our website easier by storing information about your preferences and enabling you to take full advantage of our services. Cookies are very small text files that a website can transfer to your computer's hard drive for record keeping.

We may also use Cookies so that we can determine which parts of our website are visited most often, or whether you visited our site from a banner advertisement for one of our products and services on another party’s website.

Sometimes Cookies are used by a third party service provider who we have an agreement with to monitor the success of our marketing campaigns. The third party service provider uses the Cookies to collect information such as when you visited our site, your browser type and the server that your computer is logged in to.

The information is used in an aggregate form and generally no personal information is collected by the third party service provider. Confidentiality agreements with these third parties ensure this information is only used to carry out functions on our behalf, and if any personal information is collected the confidentially of that information is maintained.

Most Internet web browsers are pre-set to accept cookies to enable full use of websites that employ them. However, if you do not wish to receive any cookies you may configure your browser to reject them or warn you when cookies are being used. In some instances, this may mean that you will not be able to use some or all of the services provided on our website. However you may still be able to access information only pages.

Changes to this Policy

From time to time, it may be necessary for us to review our Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to amend our Privacy Policy at any time and to notify you by posting an updated version on our website (www.bendigobank.com.au).

Privacy concerns or complaints

If you have concerns or wish to make a complaint regarding the treatment of your personal information by us please contact our Customer Help Centre for assistance (see below – ‘Contacting us’).

Contacting us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, what personal information we may hold in relation to you, or about the way we manage your personal information you can:

write to us at:
You can telephone Customer Help Centre on 1300 361 911
You can e-mail us at CustomerHelpCentreMailbox@bendigobank.com.au

Further information about privacy

You can find more information about privacy (including information about specific issues, answers to frequently asked questions and links to the 10 National Privacy Principles) on the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s website at www.privacy.gov.au

Date of Publication - April 2008