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Our commitment

Bank Australia is committed to complying with the provisions relating to privacy and to the collection, use, disclosure, and storage of your information.

We value your trust in us as a customer-owned bank. It is important for us to protect and keep your personal information, including your financial information, securely. To achieve this we are committed to complying with the requirements of the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) when we collect, hold and manage your personal information, that is, information that allows others to identify you.

The APPs provide a set of rules which govern how we collect, use, disclose and store personal information.

The APPs also require us to have a clearly expressed and up-to-date Privacy Policy about our management of personal information. 

Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy and Notifications

Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy

Bank Australia Limited values the importance of your personal information and your trust in us as a customer owned bank. In this policy, “Bank Australia”, “we”, “us” or “our” means Bank Australia Limited ABN 21 087 651 607 and any of its subsidiaries. The term ‘personal information’ within this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy has the meaning prescribed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) of Australia (‘Privacy Act’).

Our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy explains how we properly manage the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information including credit-related information. Bank Australia is committed to complying with Australian provisions relating to privacy and the collection, use, disclosure and storage of your personal information contained in the:

  • Privacy Act, including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)
  • Credit Reporting Privacy Code
  • Banking Code of Practice
  • Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice.

This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy does not apply to acts and practices in relation to personal information provided to, held or used by Bank Australia where that information forms part of an employee record for the purposes of the Privacy Act. For job applicants, please refer to the Privacy Notification for job applicants contained in the ‘Careers’ section of our website: https://bankaust.com.au/tools/privacy/privacy-notification-for-job-applicants/

Types of information we collect

We will only collect and hold your personal information for the purposes of providing products and services to you and managing our business and as required by law or regulation. The following are examples of the types of information we collect and hold:

  • contact details including your name, postal or residential address, email, telephone numbers including mobile numbers;
  • information and documents to verify your identity including date of birth, tax file number; previous 2 addresses, your current and last known employer, a copy of your driver’s licence or passport;
  • passwords, passcodes and knowledge-based questions used for your account security;
  • voice verification using your voice print on calls for your account security;
  • information about your financial position; and
    • information related to your use of the Bank Australia website, internet banking and/or application (App), your location information, IP address, mobile device and third party sites are stored. This is collected through cookie data – please refer to “Cookie” section of this policy.

 In connection to the provision of credit, information we may collect includes:

  • your credit file, your credit history, and applications for credit
  • your repayment history;
    • information about your current or terminated consumer credit accounts;
    • information about your payments overdue for at least 60 days and for which collection action has commenced;
    • whether you are a guarantor; and
      • other information about credit standing, worthiness, history or capacity that credit providers can disclose under the Privacy Act, including a credit report.
Reasons we collect and hold information

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of:

  • assessing and processing your application to acquire, administer or discontinue any financial or banking products and services that we provide;
  • when providing credit to you, this may include assessing your application for consumer or commercial credit or to be a guarantor, assessing your credit worthiness, managing your loan or the arrangements under which your loan is funded or in the collection of overdue payments including notifications via SMS;
  • identity verification (including for electronic verification) and customer due diligence including to meet our obligations under anti money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, and to protect your account from unauthorised access;
  • complying with legislative and regulatory obligations, for example we are legally obliged to collect and hold personal information about you to assess your capacity to repay a loan;
  • providing information to joint account holders;
    • providing you with information about your payment transfers and any details regarding overdrawn accounts or accounts in arrears, or when we combine or set off your accounts, including notifications via SMS;
    • confirming security information, including notifications via SMS;
      • providing you with information about financial services and products from third parties we have arrangements with;
      • obtaining further information about you from credit reporting agencies and other third parties to assess your application;
      • conducting research, including customer satisfaction research, market or demographic research in relation to the products or services you and other members may acquire from us, planning, product development or risk assessment;
      • sending you marketing material, promotional messages and other information that may be of interest to you (more information is provided in section 5 “Marketing”; and
      • investigating disputes, complaints or mistaken payments.

Wherever possible we will collect personal information directly from you. However, when you apply for credit or apply to be a guarantor, we will collect information about your credit history from a credit reporting body and other lenders. From time to time we may ask you to confirm your contact information.

If you do not provide us with the personal information we request, we may not be able to consider your application for credit or provide other products or services.
Disclosure of information

We may disclose your personal information (including credit- related information) to other organisations that provide services that assist us in supplying or administering the products and services that we offer. We also disclose your personal information as required by law.

We do not generally disclose your information to overseas recipients.

The types of organisations that we may provide your personal information to are:

  • organisations that provide services to verify your identity, including electronic verification;
  • our professional advisers such as lawyers, accountants or auditors;
  • providers of payment and card services when you make a transaction using a payment service or a card;
  • your representatives, such as professional advisers including lawyers and accountants, conveyancers, brokers and agents;
  • contractors for statement printing and mail out, card and cheque production, market research or direct marketing;
  • entities that help identify illegal activities and prevent fraud;
    • third party product and service suppliers to provide information to you about their services and products and other third parties with your consent or where authorised, including organisations with whom we have arrangements to jointly provide you with products or services;
    • insurers;
      • credit reporting bodies, banks and other financial institutions or credit providers, and their professional advisers;
      • persons you use as referees;
        • for property loans – property valuers and insurers such as a lenders’ mortgage insurer;
        • for loans guaranteed by the National Housing Finance Investment Corporation (NHFIC) as part of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (Scheme) – to the NHFIC or the Commonwealth to meet the requirements of the Scheme;
        • mortgage documentation service providers;
        • trustees and managers of securitised loan programs;
        • any proposed or actual guarantor of a loan;
        • debt collection agencies, process servers;
          • external service providers such as our agents or contractors who have signed non-disclosure agreements;
          • government or regulatory agencies, bodies or corporations, statutory bodies, courts of law, tribunals or regulators, or otherwise as required by law or to assist with law enforcement activities;.

The credit reporting bodies that we disclose information to are Equifax and Experian.

If you do not make your repayments when they fall due or commit a serious credit infringement, we may be able to disclose this to Equifax and Experian. Any information that we provide to these bodies may be included in reports provided to credit providers to help them assess your creditworthiness.

You can ask Equifax and Experian to not use your information for pre-screening of direct marketing by a credit provider. You can also ask them not to use or disclose your information if you reasonably believe that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud.

Contact details:

Equifax

Phone: 13 83 32

Mail: PO Box 964, North Sydney, NSW 2059. www.equifax.com.au

Experian

Phone: 1300 783 684

Mail: GPO Box 1969, North Sydney, NSW 2060 www.experian.com.au

Some of the organisations to whom we disclose your information may store your information in the cloud or other types of networked or electronic storage. As this type of storage can be accessed from various countries via an internet connection it is not always practicable to know in which country your information may be held. If your information is stored in this way, disclosures may occur in countries outside Australia. The privacy laws in those countries may not be as protective as Australian privacy laws.

Overseas organisations may be required to disclose information we share with them under a foreign law. In those instances, we will not be responsible for that disclosure.
Data security

We hold your information in our banking system. As a bank, we must comply with data privacy and security regulations.

We have security and control systems in place to guard against unauthorised access. We will destroy or de-identify information when we no longer need it.
Marketing

We may use personal information you have provided to us to send you information about Bank Australia and our products or services that we believe may interest you. We will only contact you if you have consented to receive such messages.

Marketing material can be delivered by a range of methods including sms, email, online advertising and social media in accordance with the Spam Act 2001 (Cth) and the Privacy Act. If you receive marketing material from us and do not wish to receive this information any longer, please contact us directly or use the unsubscribe facilities included in our marketing communications.

Where applicable, you can opt out from receiving marketing material from us, by using the applicable ‘unsubscribe’ functionality or by contacting us directly.

Please note that marketing material does not include important information about your account. If you are a Bank Australia customer, we will use your personal information to send you messages containing important information about your account. These messages are an important part of the service that we provide to you and will be sent to you as long as you hold an account with us. Customers with an account cannot opt-out of receiving these messages.

We will not disclose any sensitive information about you for the purposes of direct marketing unless you have consented to the use or disclosure of the information for that purpose.
Online Privacy

We may collect information related to your use of the

Bank Australia website and/or application (App), your location information, IP address, mobile device and third party sites are stored.

“Cookies” give users of our website or application a unique, random identification by storing small text files onto your computer’s hard drive with your internet browser.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies, and for more detailed information please refer to our Website and Security Privacy Statement, available on our website

Our website and App also may contain links that lead to other websites. We are not responsible for these other sites, and so their posted privacy policies (not this policy) will govern the collection and use of your information on them. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each website that is linked and you visit, to learn about how your information is treated by others.
How to change your details

You can request to access and update the personal information that we hold about you. You can make a request by writing to us (see details in 8. below) ; telephoning us on 132 888; or by visiting one of our branches.
Complaints & Contact

We also offer an internal complaint resolution scheme which any customer can access at any time without charge.

If you consider that we have not met our obligations under the Privacy Act and/or the APPs, you may make a complaint or seek further assistance in one of the following ways:

Privacy Officer

Bank Australia

Private Bag 12, Kew, VIC 3101

If we were unable to resolve your complaint, you can also contact the following external bodies to see if they are able to assist:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Mail: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001

Telephone: 1300 363 992 Website: www.oaic.gov.au

Australian Financial Complaints Authority

Mail: GPO Box 3 Melbourne, VIC 3001

Telephone: 1800 931 678

Fax (03) 9613 6399

Interpreter service 131 450 Website: www.afca.org.au

Last updated 1 February 2020

Privacy Notification for banking and lending customers

This Privacy Notification describes how Bank Australia properly manages the collection, use, storage and disclosure of your personal information (including credit-related information). We recognise the importance of protecting your personal information, and are committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988, the Australian Privacy Principles, and any industry Code of Practice which we have subscribed to. View a copy of our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy at www.bankaust.com.au/privacy

Information we may collect - including in connection to the provision of credit

We will only collect and hold personal information for the purpose of providing products and services to you, managing our business and as required by law.

The following are examples of the types of information we may collect and hold:

  • contact details including your name, postal or residential address, email, telephone numbers including mobile numbers;
  • information and documents to verify your identity including date of birth, tax file number; previous 2 addresses, your current and last known employer, a copy of your driver’s licence or passport;
  • passwords, passcodes and knowledge-based questions used for your account security
  • voice verification using your voice print on calls for your account security;
  • information about your financial position;
  • job applications and related information - if you apply for a job with us, please see our Privacy Notification for Job Applicants; and
  • information relation to your use of the Bank Australia website, internet banking and/or application (“App”).

 

In connection to the provision of credit, information we may collect includes:

  • your credit file, your credit history, and applications for credit
  • your repayment history;
  • information about your current or terminated consumer credit accounts
  • information about your payments overdue for at least 60 days and for which collection action has commenced;
  • whether you are a guarantor; and
  • other information about credit standing, worthiness, history or capacity that credit providers can disclose under the Privacy Act, including a credit report.
Reasons We Collect and Hold Information

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of:

  • assessing and processing your application to acquire, administer or discontinue any financial or banking products and services that we provide;
  • when providing credit to you, this may include assessing your application for consumer or commercial credit or to be a guarantor, assessing your credit worthiness, managing your loan or the arrangements under which your loan is funded or in the collection of overdue payments including notifications via SMS;
  • identity verification and customer due diligence to meet our obligations under anti money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, and to protect your account from unauthorised access;
  • complying with legislative and regulatory obligations, for example we are legally obliged to collect and hold personal information about you to assess your capacity to repay a loan;
  • providing information to joint account holders;
  • confirming security information, including notifications via SMS;
  • providing you with information about your payment transfers and any details regarding overdrawn accounts or accounts in arrears, or when we combine or set off your accounts, including notifications via SMS;
  • providing you with information about financial services and products from third parties we have arrangements with;
  • obtaining further information about you from credit reporting agencies and other third parties to assess your application;
  • conducting research, including customer satisfaction research and market or demographic research in relation to the products and services you and other members may acquire from us,  planning, product development or risk assessment;
  • sending you marketing material, promotional messages and other information that may be of interest to you (see  below. “Marketing preferences, data security and online privacy section”) including membership benefits; and
  • investigating disputes, complaints or mistaken payments.

 

Wherever possible we will collect personal information directly from you. However when you apply for credit or apply to be a guarantor, we will collect information about your credit history from a credit reporting body and other lenders. From time to time we may ask you to confirm your contact information.

 

If you do not provide us with the personal information we request, we may not be able to consider your application for credit or provide other products or services.
Disclosure of information - including your credit-related information

We may disclose your personal information ((including credit-related information) to other organisations that provide services that assist us in supplying or administering the products and services that we offer. We also disclose your personal information as required by law.

We do not generally disclose your information to overseas recipients.

The types of organisations that we may provide your personal information to are:

  • organisations that provide information to verify your identity (this includes electronic verification);
  • our professional advisers such as lawyers, accountants or auditors;
  • providers of payment and card services when you make a transaction using a payment service or a card;
  • your representatives, such as professional advisers including lawyers and accountants, conveyancers, brokers and agents;
  • entities that help identify illegal activities or prevent fraud;
  • external service providers for statement printing and mail out, card and cheque production, market research or direct marketing;
  • third party product and service suppliers to provide information to you about their services and products or other third parties with your consent or where authorised, including organisations with whom we have arrangements to jointly provide you with products or services;
  • insurers;
  • credit reporting bodies, banks and other financial institutions, or credit providers and their professional advisers;
  • persons you use as referees;
  • for property loans – property valuers, proposed or actual guarantors and insurers such as our lenders’ mortgage insurers, or  mortgage documentation service providers;
  • for loans guaranteed by the National Housing Finance Investment Corporation (NHFIC) as part of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (Scheme) – to the NHFIC or the Commonwealth to meet the requirements of the Scheme;
  • trustees and managers of securitised loan programs;
  • debt collection agencies, credit reporting bureaus, process servers; or
  • government or regulatory agencies, bodies or corporations, statutory bodies, courts of law, tribunals or regulators, or otherwise as required by law or to assist with enforcement activities.

The credit reporting bodies that we disclose information to are Equifax and Experian.

If you do not make your repayments when they fall due or commit a serious credit infringement, we may be able to disclose this to Equifax and Experian. Any information that we provide to these bodies may be included in reports provided to credit providers to help them assess your creditworthiness.

You can ask Equifax and Experian to not use your information for pre-screening of direct marketing by a credit provider. You can also ask them not to use or disclose your information if you reasonably believe that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud.

 

Contact details:

Equifax

Phone: 13 83 32

Mail: PO Box 964, North Sydney, NSW 2059.

www.equifax.com.au

Experian

Phone: 1300 783 684

Mail: GPO Box 1969, North Sydney, NSW 2060

www.experian.com.au
Marketing preferences, data security and online privacy

Marketing material can be delivered by a range of methods including sms, email, online advertising and social media in accordance with the Spam Act 2001 (Cth) and the Privacy Act.

If you receive marketing material from us and do not wish to receive this information any longer, please contact us directly or use the unsubscribe facilities included in our marketing communications.

Where applicable, you can opt out from receiving marketing material from us, by using the applicable ‘unsubscribe’ functionality or by contacting us directly.  

Please note that marketing material does not include important information about your account. If you are a Bank Australia customer, we will use your personal information to send you messages containing important information about your account. These messages are an important part of the service that we provide to you and will be sent to you as long as you hold an account with us. Customers with an account cannot opt-out of receiving these messages.

Data security

We hold your information in our banking system. As a bank, we must comply with data privacy and security regulations. We have security and control systems in place to guard against unauthorised access.

Online privacy

Cookies

“Cookies” give users of our web server or application a unique, random identification by storing small text files onto your computer’s hard drive with your internet browser.

How we use cookies:

  1. Unique identifiers (such as login name and password) are collected from web site visitors to verify a user's identity and for use as account numbers in our record system.
  2. Unique identifiers are also used to access stored information about a visitor's preferences to enable the dynamic display of the site according to your preferences when you return.
  3. Targeting or advertising – these cookies are used to deliver marketing and advertising material that are relevant to you. They also limit the number of times that you see an advertisement and help Bank Australia ensure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns

Disabling Cookies:

It is possible to disable the acceptance of cookies by your web browser. However, doing so may restrict your ability to access some web pages.

If you prevent the use of cookies, the information mentioned above will no longer be stored by your browser and with every visit your information will be required and  have to be completed again. You should also note that the use of Digital Banking is not possible without the use of cookies. Specific settings regarding cookies depend on the type of browser.

For more detailed information, please refer to our Website Security & Privacy Statement
Further assistance and how to contact us

How to change your details

You can request to access and update the personal information that we hold about you. You can make a request by writing to us (at the details set out below); telephoning us on 132 888; or by visiting one of our branches.

 

Enquiries / Complaints

We also offer an internal complaint resolution scheme which any customer can access at any time without charge.

If you consider that we have not met our obligations under the Privacy Act and/or the APPs, you may make a complaint or seek further assistance in the following ways:

 

Privacy Officer

Bank Australia

Private Bag 12, Kew, VIC 3101

 

If we were unable to resolve your complaint, you can also contact the following external bodies to see if they are able to assist:

 

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Mail: GPO Box 5218

Sydney NSW 2001

Telephone: 1300 363 992

Website: www.oaic.gov.au

 

Australian Financial Complaints Authority

Mail: GPO Box 3

Melbourne, VIC 3001

Telephone: 1800 931 678

Fax (03) 9613 6399

Interpreter service 131 450

Website: www.oaic.gov.au

Last updated 1 February 2020

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