Reverse Mortgage Services Website Privacy Policy

Details of Reverse Mortgage Services Pty. Ltd.

Reverse Mortgage Services Pty. Ltd.
RBS Tower
88 Phillip Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000

GPO Box 4675
SYDNEY NSW 1042

Telephone: 61 2 8259 5000
Facsimile: 61 2 8259 5444

email: loans.au@rbs.com

Privacy Officer contact details

Telephone number: 61 2 8259 6055
Facsimile number: 61 2 8259 5470

Reverse Mortgage Services Pty. Ltd.

This privacy statement is made on behalf of Reverse Mortgage Services Pty. Ltd. (ABN 87 114 594 080). All references to "Reverse Mortgage Services", "we", "us" or "our" in this policy are references to Reverse Mortgage Services Pty. Ltd. and its related bodies corporate.

Our information handling policies

At Reverse Mortgage Services we are committed to ensuring the privacy of your information. Reverse Mortgage Services recognises that you, as a customer, are concerned about your privacy and about the confidentiality and security of information that Reverse Mortgage Services may hold about you.

Reverse Mortgage Services is bound by the National Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The Privacy Act and general law place strict requirements on us to treat any information that we hold about you as confidential. This privacy statement details how we handle and protect that information.

If you have any questions relating to this privacy statement please contact our Privacy Officer (contact details provided above).

Collection

The information we collect

The information we collect from you will depend on what services we provide to you and may include the following:

your name, address and contact details;
your e-mail address;
your tax file number;
details about your financial position which would include information about your assets and any debts you may have;
details of any securities you have given us; and
details of specific transactions.

Where we collect information

In most instances information about you will be collected from you either in an application form, during an interview or from telephone contact.

We may also collect information about you from our web site but this information will only identify who you are if you provide us with your details (eg. if you e-mail your contact details to us or if you use a logon and password to access a particular service).

When you visit our web site our web server collects the following types of information for statistical purposes:

your Internet service provider's address;
the number of users who visit the web site;
the date and time of each visit;
the pages accessed and the documents downloaded;
the type of browser used.

No attempt is made to identify individual users from this information.

The Reverse Mortgage Services web site contains links to the web sites of third parties. If you access those third party web sites they may collect information about you. Reverse Mortgage Services does not collect information about you from the third parties. You will need to contact them to ascertain their privacy standards.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file placed on your computer hard drive by a web page server. Cookies may be accessed later by our web server. Cookies store information about your use of our web site. Cookies also allow us to provide you with more personalised service when using our web site.

Reverse Mortgage Services uses cookies to:

determine whether you have previously used the Reverse Mortgage Services web site;
identify the pages you have accessed;
facilitate administration of the site and for security purposes.

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies but you may configure your browser not to accept cookies. If you set your browser to reject cookies you may not be able to make full use of the Reverse Mortgage Services web site.

Uses and disclosure of information

We will only use or disclose the information collected about you for the purpose for which it was collected, for related purposes which you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose the information for, or where you have consented to us using or disclosing the information.

We may use your personal information to:

open an account for you;
maintain your account;
process your investment application;
enable us to assess any request from you for financial assistance;
send research information to you;
respond to any specific requests you may make of us;
help us to assess products that may suit your financial needs;
notify you of any products that may be of interest to you;
audit and monitor the services we provide to you;
update your personal files; and
enable us to meet our obligations under law, for example, the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 (Cth) and Australian taxation laws.

We may disclose your personal information to:

related companies within the Reverse Mortgage Services group of companies when providing credit facilities, taking deposits and for marketing purposes;
our agents, contractors or third party service providers to enable them to provide administrative and other support services to us; and
where the disclosure is required by law, for example to government agencies and regulatory bodies as part of our statutory obligations, or for law enforcement purposes.

E-mail address

If you provide us with your e-mail address during a visit to our web site it will only be used for the purpose for which you provided it to us. It will not be added to a mailing list without your consent unless the mailing list is related to the purpose for which you provided your e-mail address to us. We may use your e-mail address, for example, to provide you with information about a particular service or respond to a message you have sent to us.

If you subscribe to one of our services and provide your e-mail address to us so that we may communicate with you through e-mail, we may also use your e-mail address to advise you of upgrades and changes to those services.

Reverse Mortgage Services's offshore offices and contractors

Reverse Mortgage Services may send information about you to Reverse Mortgage Services's offshore offices that are responsible for approving credit facilities, processing transactions or providing administrative services. In such instances Reverse Mortgage Services has taken reasonable steps to ensure that the information we send overseas has the same level of privacy protection as we provide here in Australia.

Reverse Mortgage Services may use third party service providers to maintain some of our data systems and provide auxiliary services. We require any party that has access to personal information to conform to our privacy standards.

Direct marketing

We do not disclose information about you to third parties for marketing purposes.

Security and retention policies

Reverse Mortgage Services is committed to ensuring the security of information that we hold about you. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the information we hold about you is stored securely, whether in a physical or electronic form.

If you use the Internet to communicate with us, you should be aware that there are inherent risks in transmitting information over the Internet. Reverse Mortgage Services does not have control over information while in transit over the Internet and we cannot guarantee its security.

Any personal information that we no longer require is destroyed. An exception to this may be where records are retained to comply with legal requirements.

Access and correction

We try to ensure that all information about you that we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

You may at any time request access to personal information that we hold about you. If there is an error with our information or our information is incomplete, you can advise us and we will, if needed, correct or add information.

We will not charge you a fee for your access request but may charge you the reasonable cost of processing your request.

If you would like to request access to the information we hold about you, please contact our Privacy Officer (contact details provided above).

Disputes

If you have a complaint about our treatment of your privacy, please contact our Privacy Officer (contact details provided above). Our Privacy Officer will investigate your complaint and endeavour to resolve any issue to your satisfaction.

If we do not adequately answer your concerns, you have the right to make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner. The Privacy Commissioner can be contacted by telephone on 1300 363 992.