Privacy Policy.

Our commitment to protect your privacy

We understand how important it is to protect your personal information. This document sets out our privacy policy commitment in respect of personal information we hold about you and what we do with that information.

Any personal information we collect about you will only be used for the purposes we have collected it or as allowed under law. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we hold about you will be treated in a way which ensures protection of your personal information.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect most personal information directly from you, whether in person, on the phone, electronically or if you deal with us in some other way. We may also collect your personal information in other ways, including:

from your joint applicants, co-applicants or guarantors;

  • when you visit our websites;

  • from third parties such as social media platforms, marketing websites, related companies and credit reporting bodies;

  • from your representatives, e.g. solicitors, accountants, conveyancers, builders, agents;

  • from referral partners, who refer your business to us; and

  • when legally required to do so - for example, in the provision of specific credit services.

What information do we collect?

When we refer to personal information we mean information from which your identity is reasonably apparent. This information may include information or an opinion about you. The personal information we hold about you may also include credit information.  Typically this will refer to:

Identification Information - this may include your name, date of birth, address, account details, employment history, qualifications and any other information we may need to identify you. 

Financial Information - this is information required for making credit-related decisions and typically includes details such as your tax file number and bank account, superannuation or insurance policy information, credit reports from credit reporting bodies, income and expenses, assets and liabilities and credit and loan repayment history.  We may also collect the ages and number of your dependent and cohabitants as part of any finance application. If we collect government identifiers, such as your tax file number, we do not use or disclose this information other than required by law.  We will never use a government identifier in order to identify you.

Credit information is information which is used to assess your eligibility to be provided with finance and may include any finance that you have outstanding, your repayment history in respect of those loans, and any defaults.  Usually, credit information is exchanged between credit and finance providers and credit reporting bodies.

Sensitive information is personal information that includes information relating to your memberships in trade or professional associations or trade unions, or health. We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent.

If you are applying for finance we may also collect the ages and number of your dependants and cohabitants, the length of time at your current address, your employment details and proof of earnings and expenses. If you apply for any insurance product through us we may also collect your health information. We will only collect health information from you with your consent.

Why we collect your personal information

We collect your personal information primarily for the purposes of:

  • Managing our relationship with you and others, including lenders.

  • Assessing your application for finance and managing that finance, which allows us to:

    • verify your identity;

    • assist you in obtaining approval or the provision of a product or service;

    • provide the products and services you require and assist in managing these over time;

    • contact you, for example if we need to tell you something important;

    • conduct appropriate checks for credit-worthiness and for fraud;

    • manage our risks and help identify and investigate illegal activity;

    • research and develop our products or services provided

    • help us manage our relationship with you, including, for example, dealing with any feedback, disputes or enquiries; and

    • conduct and improve our businesses and improve your customer experience.

  • Ensuring we meet relevant regulatory requirements, comply with all relevant laws and assist government and law enforcement agencies or regulators;

  • Improve our service to you and your experience with us;

  • For the purposes of direct marketing and managing our relationship with you; and

  • To offer you other products and services by ourselves or from other organisations that provide products or services used or marketed by us that we feel will be of value to you - if you do not wish to receive this information, you may decline to receive this by contacting us at [email protected] and we will take all reasonable steps to meet your request at the earliest possible opportunity.

  • If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all of the following may happen:

  • we may not be able to provide our products and services to you, either to the same standard or at all;

  • we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want, including information about special promotions; and

  • we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preferences and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful.

Do we disclose your personal information?

We may disclose your personal information:

  • to other parts of the Loan Market Group or related entities;

  • to industry bodies, referees or identity verification services;

  • to our panel lenders, Australian banks, non-bank lenders and providers of credit, financial or insurance services;

  • to other organisations that are involved in managing or administering your finance such as third party suppliers, printing and postal services, call centres;

  • to associated businesses that may want to market products to you;

  • to companies that provide information and infrastructure systems to us;

  • to anybody who represents you, such as finance brokers, lawyers and accountants;

  • to anyone, where you have provided us consent;

  • where we are required to do so by law, such as under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth);

  • to investors, agents or advisers, or any entity that has an interest in our business; or

  • to your employer, referees or identity verification services.

Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another person or organisation, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:

  • the person or organisation has a commitment to protecting your personal information at least equal to our commitment, or

  • you have consented to us making the disclosure.

Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia?

We may disclose personal information to our related bodies corporate and third party suppliers and service providers located overseas for some of the purposes listed above. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach the privacy obligations relating to your personal information.

We may disclose your personal information to entities located outside of Australia, including the following:

  • our data hosting and other IT service providers; and

  • other third parties located in the Philippines, New Zealand, the USA and elsewhere.

Your personal information may be stored in cloud servers located outside of Australia. As such, information, electronic or networked, can be accessed remotely. It is not always practicable to know which country your information may be held or accessed.

Direct marketing

From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with current information about finance, offers you may find of interest, changes to our organisation, or new products or services being offered by us or any company with whom we are associated.

If you do not wish to receive marketing information, you may at any time decline to receive such information by telephoning us on 13 56 26 or by writing to us at [email protected]. If the direct marketing is by email you may also use the unsubscribe function. We will not charge you for giving effect to your request and will take all reasonable steps to meet your request at the earliest possible opportunity.

Updating your personal information

It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. During the course of our relationship with you we may ask you to inform us if any of your personal information has changed.

We will provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you. You may request access to any of the personal information we hold about you at any time. We may charge a fee for our costs of retrieving and supplying the information to you.

There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal information, for example, if the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings. An explanation will be provided to you if we deny you access to the personal information we hold about you.

Depending on the type of request that you make we may respond to your request immediately, otherwise we usually respond to you within seven days of receiving your request. We may need to contact other entities to properly investigate your request. 

If you wish to make any changes to your personal information, you may contact our Privacy Officer at [email protected]. We will generally rely on you to ensure the information we hold about you is accurate or complete. If any of the personal information we hold about you is incorrect, inaccurate or out of date you may request that we correct the information. If appropriate, we will correct the personal information. 

Where reasonable, and after our investigation, we will provide you with details about whether we have corrected the personal information within 30 days.  If we refuse to correct personal information we will provide you with our reasons for not correcting the information.

Using government identifiers

If we collect government identifiers, such as your tax file number, we do not use or disclose this information other than required by law. We will never use a government identifier in order to identify you.

Business without identifying you

In most circumstances it will be necessary for us to identify you in order to successfully do business with you.  You have the option of not identifying yourself (or using a pseudonym) when making enquiries.  Where it is lawful and practicable to do so, we will offer you the opportunity of doing business with us without providing us with personal information, for example, if you make general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers.

How safe and secure is your personal information that we hold?

We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information by storing it in a secure environment.  We may store your personal information in paper and electronic form.  We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Complaints

If you have a question or comment regarding this Privacy Policy or how we have dealt with your personal information, or you wish to make a complaint about our compliance with the Privacy Act, please contact our Privacy Officer using the following details:

E-mail:  [email protected]

Post: The Privacy Officer, Loan Market Group Pty Ltd, Level 26, 111 Eagle Street, Brisbane QLD 4000

We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days and aim to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible.  We will provide you with a decision on your complaint within 30 days.

If you are dissatisfied with our response,  you can refer your complaint to the Privacy Commissioner:

Visit: oaic.gov.au 

Call:  1300 363 992

Email: [email protected]

Write: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001

Further Information

You may request further information about the way we manage your personal information by contacting us.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may revise this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes to the law or market practice.  When we make changes to our privacy policy, they are reflected on this page. Any revised privacy policy will apply both to information we already have about you at the time of the change, and any personal information created or received after the change takes effect. We encourage you to periodically re-read this privacy policy, to see if there have been any changes to our policies that may affect you. Your continued use of our services following an update to this privacy policy constitutes acceptance of those changes.

You may request this privacy policy in an alternative form.

Last updated: 6 November 2024