Confidentiality and Privacy Policy (The “Privacy Policy”)
Confidentiality and Privacy Policy (The “Privacy Policy”)
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1. Introduction
FCM Bank Limited (C50343) of Suite 3, Tower Business Centre, Tower Street, Swatar, B’Kara BKR 4013, Malta (the “Bank”) has a legal duty to respect and protect any confidential information and personal information collected from its customers and to use it for purposes they are aware of. The Bank takes all measures necessary to prevent unauthorised access and does not divulge details collected from its customers to a visitor and/or customer or to any third party, unless given consent to do so or unless obliged to do so by law or court order, or as otherwise set-out in terms of this Privacy Policy. Leading technologies are used to protect the security of its customers data and whenever third parties are hired to provide support services they are required to observe and follow the Banks privacy standards and are audited for compliance of such.
2. Bank Secrecy
In accordance with the laws of Malta, we are obligated to maintain secrecy and confidentiality with respect to all information you provide to us about yourself ("Secret Information"). However, there are certain circumstances, as permitted by Maltese law, under which we may disclose Secret Information.
These circumstances include instances where disclosure is required by law or mandated by a court order, among other legal provisions. While we are committed to safeguarding the confidentiality of your information, we may be compelled to disclose Secret Information under these specified conditions.
Please rest assured that we take your privacy seriously and will only disclose Secret Information when legally required to do so. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the confidentiality of your information, please feel free to contact us for further clarification.
By accepting the General Terms and Conditions of the Bank and this Privacy Policy, which govern your relationship with the Bank, you consent to the disclosure of information acquired during the course of our relationship under the following circumstances:
to any of our professional advisers (including but not limited to financial, legal, management and other advisers as might be engaged from time to time ), or to any of our group entities or affiliated entities, or to any consultants (including market research entities, advertising agencies) or to any actual or potential assignee or transferee of the Bank’s rights against you, or to any person who may otherwise enter into contractual relations with the Bank in relation to the business relationship with you;
to any person to whom we have outsourced any activities or services of the Bank, including any material and/or non-material activities and/or services of the Bank;
when the information is required to be disclosed or is requested in the course of a due diligence exercise;
when the information is required in the normal course of business with institutions or other persons who are bound by similar obligations of secrecy.
It is important to note that unless otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy, the General Terms and Conditions of the Bank, and/or any Specific Terms and Conditions of the Bank, the obligation of secrecy shall persist even after the termination of the relationship between us.
3. Processing your Data
We store and process your data, including personal data in terms of the Data Protection Act (Chapter 440 of the Laws of Malta), to the extent that this is necessary for the appropriate conduct of our business relations and conforms to the applicable statutory provisions. We only record information which serves to fulfil our duties and we do this solely within the scope of the service provided to you. In providing our services we collect, process and store data relating to you from other Banks and other professionals.
4. Why we Collect your Data
Information about you may be stored in the Bank’s database and utilised, analysed, and assessed to enhance our service provision. We collect relevant information necessary to conduct our business effectively and officer improved services and products to our customers. The information collected is utilized in the following ways and for the following purposes:
- Provision of information or other services related to specific requests made by you including statements issuance;
- Compliance with legal requirements, which may necessitate disclosure to governmental bodies, agencies, regulators or recognised external authorities under proper authority;
- Internal assessment and analysis to enhance operational efficiency;
- Conducting research and generating statistics to better understand customer needs and preferences;
- Detection and prevention of fraud, illegal acts or criminal activity in alignment with our anti-money laundering policy;
- Development and improvement of the Bank’s products and services to meet evolving customer demands;
- Debt recovery and to assistance in debtor tracing procedures; and
- Identity verification and address confirmation processed.
During the application vetting process, we may searches in the Electoral Register, carry out identity checks and request information from credit reference agencies. This information may be used for identification purposes, debt tracing and the prevention of money laundering. Additionally, the records will be used for statistical analysis concerning credit, insurance, and fraud.
5. Third Party Access to your information
We constantly strive to ensure that your information is kept safe and secure at all times. All our staff and all third parties with permitted access to your information are specifically required to observe this Privacy Policy. We aim to keep your information up to date and in this regard we may use third parties to process information on our behalf. We will only disclose personal data to third parties if this is required for the purpose of fulfilling any specific request that you may make to us or otherwise if we are to provide information if required by governmental bodies, agencies or regulators, however exclusively under proper authority, or if permitted in terms of this Privacy Policy. We will not process or provide third parties with information regarding your financial transactions / accounts held with us unless we are required or permitted to do so by law, by court order, with your consent or as otherwise set out in terms of this Privacy Policy. Whenever third parties process your information on our request we will bind them to keep such information in strict confidentiality. In the processing of information, your information shall at all times be kept protected by strict codes of secrecy and security to which we, our staff and third parties are subject to and will only be used in accordance with our instructions.
Personal data in relation to transactions effected via SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) may be required to be disclosed to the United States authorities in order to comply with legal requirements applicable in the United States for the prevention of crime.
6. Direct Marketing
We may use your contact details and process your personal data to inform you of relevant opportunities, developments, events and products that may be of interest to you. We may carry out direct marketing in order to inform you, by mail, telephone, email or other electronic means, about products and services provided by the Bank, its subsidiaries, affiliates, associates, agents and by carefully selected third parties and for research purposes. Should you not want to be contacted for marketing purposes, you should inform us accordingly by ticking the appropriate box in the personal/corporate profile form or relevant application form or otherwise inform us by sending a written request to this effect (by sending it to info@fcmbank.com.mt).
At times, we may engage third party companies to carry out bulk mailing or marketing campaigns on behalf of the Bank. In such instances, we would be required to provide these contractors with your contact details excluding personal financial information. It is important to note that any third party companies contracted by the Bank will be obliged to adhere to legal provisions, including data protection regulations when utilizing information included in the Bank’s mailing list.
7. Your Rights
As a valued customer, you have certain rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These rights are designed to ensure that your personal information is handled responsibly and in accordance with legal requirements. Below are some key rights you have:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you. If you require this, then please reach out to us via info@fcmbank.com.mt.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us. If you require this, then please reach out to us via info@fcmbank.com.mt.
Request erasure of personal data. You have the right to request the deletion or removal of your personal data in certain circumstances. If you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), if we have processed your information unlawfully, or if we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law, you can request erasure. However, please note that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure due to specific legal reasons. If applicable, we will notify to you of these reasons at the time of your request. As a Bank authorised and licensed by the MFSA , FCM Bank is obligated to retain certain data for a minimum number of years in accordance with regulatory requirements. These retention requirements supersede any requests for erasure under applicable data protection laws.
Object to processing of your personal data. This is in situations where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights. As a licensed institution, FCM Bank is under certain obligations to process and retain certain data for compliance purposes. Please note that these requirements supersede any right to objection requests under applicable data protection laws. If you object to the processing of certain data then we may not be able to provide the FCM Bank Services and it is likely we will have to terminate your account.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it. Please note that any requests in relation to the restriction of the processing of your data means that we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (including the FCM Bank Services). In this case, we may have to cancel your use of the FCM Bank Services but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, which you can then transfer to an applicable third party. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide the FCM Bank Services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
NO FEE USUALLY REQUIRED
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
WHAT WE MAY NEED FROM YOU
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
TIME LIMIT TO RESPOND
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (including the FCM Bank Services). In this case, we may have to cancel your use of the FCM Bank Services but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
8. Web Technology
Whilst we take measures to ensure that your personal data cannot be intercepted by third parties, please note that when using our website, data is transported over an open network (the internet) which is accessible to third parties and which cannot be regarded as a secure environment. We may transmit or store any data provided by you when using our website outside your country of residence. In such cases, we will make every effort to secure an appropriate standard of protection for your data, including those relating to bank-client confidentiality and data protection, but it is possible that data may be relayed to a country in which the prevailing standards of data protection are lower than in your country of domicile. We accept no responsibility or liability for the security of your data during transmission via the Internet. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that you can communicate with us by other means whenever you consider it appropriate on data protection grounds.
9. Cookies
Similar to other websites, our website utilises a standard technology called ‘cookies’. A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your computer’s (or other device’s) browser from a website’s server and is stored on your computer’s (or other device’s) hard drive. Cookies allow a website to remember things like your preferences or whether you have logged in, and they allow us to tailor our website to your interests. Information supplied by cookies can also help us to analyse your use of our website and help us to provide you with a better user experience.
We use two types of cookies:
-
Essential Cookies for the Internet Banking Service. These are session cookies that expire at the end of the session (that is, once you log-out of the Internet Banking Service) or when the browser is closed. The cookies we use for the Internet Banking Service are: (a) ASP.NET_SessionId; (b) LogonTokenId; (c) .ASPXAUTH; and (d) SessionTokenld. If you block or refuse these cookies then you might not be able to log in or use the Internet Banking Service.
- Non-Essential Cookies. We use cookies provided by a service called ‘Google Analytics’; these cookies provide us with statistical information in an anonymous form about our website visitors. This information may include: (1) the number of visitors to our website; (2) where visitors have come to our site from; (3) what browsers and devices they are using; (4) the pages they visited; (5) whether they are new or returning visitors to our website; (6) the session duration, bounce rate and keywords used; (7) their gender, age and language; and (8) which country they are located. The Google Analytics cookies we use are: (a) _utma; (b) _utmb; (c) _utmc; and (d) _utmz. Click here for an overview of privacy at Google: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245.
Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you prefer, you can set your browser to refuse cookies. You can find information about how to change your browser settings as well as other useful information about cookies here: www.allaboutcookies.org. Google Analytics also allows you to opt out of its cookies permanently. In order to do so please click on the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
If you do not adjust your browser settings to disable the use of cookies, then you are deemed to consent to the Bank’s use of cookies for our website.
10. CCTV and Telephone
We may monitor and record your telephone calls with us in order to ensure that your instructions are accurately carried out, to help us to continually improve our service and to improve security. In the interest of security we may use CCTV recording equipment in and around our premises.
We may change the content or services found on our website at any time without notice and consequently our privacy policy may change at any time in the future without notice.