ProLend Solutions
Respecting your privacy
At ProLend Solutions, respect your personal information, and this Privacy Policy explains how we handle it. The policy covers ProLend Solutions Management Pty Ltd ABN 35 645 251 172 and all its related bodies corporate (referred to as “we,” “us,” or “our”).
In addition to our standard Privacy Policy, we also have a credit reporting policy that provides additional information on how we manage your personal information when it is collected in connection with a credit application or facility. We refer to this information as credit information, and it is also covered by this policy.
What personal information do we collect and hold?
At ProLend Solutions, we may collect and store various types of personal information about you, which could include:
- Identification details such as your name, mailing or email address, phone number, and date of birth
- Other contact information such as your social media handles
- Financial information like your tax file number
- Credit-related details such as your credit history, capacity, and eligibility
- Information related to your location or activity, such as your IP address and geolocation data derived from your mobile device’s GPS when using our services
- Details of your interactions with us, including your use of the internet or mobile banking services
- Any other information that we believe is necessary to collect
When the law authorises or requires us to collect information
In certain situations, we may be obligated or authorized by law to collect your personal information. For example, under Australian Anti-Money Laundering law, we must obtain personal information from you to verify your identity.
What do we collect via your website activity?
As an online customer of ProLend Solutions, we may monitor your internet activity to verify your identity and facilitate communication between us, and to identify ways we can improve our services for you.
In the event that you begin but do not complete an online application, we may contact you using the contact information you provided to offer assistance. If the application is not completed, any information collected will be destroyed. We may also collect information about you through social media, but we will only discuss confidential matters through secure channels.
To improve our services and ensure your security, we may collect de-identified information from web users such as IP addresses or geographical information.
How do we collect your personal information?
We strive to collect personal information directly from you and keep it up-to-date. This may include filling out forms, contacting us via phone or our website, or using electronic means such as email or SMS.
How and why do we collect AML Information?
As required by Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing legislation, we must “know our customers” and ensure that all personal information is accurate.
How we receive information through social media.
If you engage with us through social media channels, we may collect information about you to assist with responding to your inquiries or comments. This information may include your social media profile information and any information you choose to share with us through those channels. However, for all confidential matters, we will ensure that we interact with you via a secure forum. We will only use the information we collect from social media channels for the purposes of responding to your inquiries or comments and improving our services. We will not share this information with any third parties unless required by law.
How we collect your information from other sources
In accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, we may collect information about you from sources other than your website activity. We will only do so if it is reasonably necessary for us to provide our services to you. This may include collecting information from third parties, such as your broker, regarding the products we provide to you, or obtaining information for fraud prevention purposes.
We may also collect information from other sources if we are unable to contact you directly and need to update your contact details. In some cases, we may exchange information with your legal or financial advisers or other representatives if you request it, or if you have given your consent to third parties sharing your information with us.
What if you don’t want to provide us with your personal information?
If you choose not to provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the product or service you are seeking, manage or administer your product or service, or personalize your experience with us. It may also impact our ability to verify your identity or protect against fraud, and may limit our ability to inform you about other products or services that may be suitable for your financial needs.
How we collect and hold your credit information
We collect credit information in the course of our interactions with you regarding the products or services you are seeking. In addition to collecting information from other sources as discussed above, we may also collect credit information from your co-loan applicants or co-borrowers, guarantors/proposed guarantors, employers, accountants, real estate agents, and other referees. We may also collect information from credit reporting bodies, credit providers, valuers, and organizations that issue identification documents to help us verify your identity. Our service providers may also assist us in processing any credit applications you make through us.
What do we do when we get information we didn’t ask for?
In the event that we receive unsolicited personal information from individuals, which refers to information that we did not actively seek out, we will assess whether this information is necessary for our operations. If it is deemed necessary, we will treat it with the same level of care and protection as information we actively collect from individuals. However, if it is not necessary, we will take appropriate measures to destroy or de-identify the information.
When will we notify you that we have received your information?
When we receive personal information from you directly, we will take reasonable steps to inform you about the details of the information collected, including how and why we collected it, who we may share it with, and how you can access it, correct it or file a complaint. Occasionally, we may collect personal information from third parties, and you may not be aware of it. In such cases, if the information collected can be used to identify you, we will take reasonable steps to notify you about the collection.
How do we take care of your personal information?
At ProLend Solutions, we take the security of your personal information seriously. We collect and store your information in various ways, both electronically and on paper. To protect your information from misuse, loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure, we have implemented various security measures, such as document storage security policies, employee confidentiality requirements, privacy training for employees, and secure access controls to our systems. Additionally, we only grant access to personal information to individuals who are verified to receive it.
In some instances, we may store your personal information with third-party data storage providers. In such cases, we ensure that the providers have appropriate security measures in place and that they limit the use of your information through contractual arrangements.
What happens when we no longer need your information?
Once we no longer need your personal information for our purposes, we will destroy or de-identify the information, unless we are required by law to keep it for a certain period of time. Our commitment to protecting your personal information is of utmost importance to us.
How we use your personal information
What are the main reasons we collect, hold and use your information?
The primary purposes for which we collect, store, and utilize your personal information are to provide you with the products and services you have requested. This enables us to utilize your information in the following ways:
Providing you with information about loan products or related services, including help, guidance, and advice
Evaluating your eligibility for a loan or any other related services you have requested, which may include identifying or verifying your identity or authority to act on behalf of a customer
- Assisting you in preparing an application for a loan
- Managing the services we provide, such as addressing requests or handling complaints
- Managing payments we receive or make in relation to your loan.
Can we use your information for marketing our products and services?
We may use or disclose your personal information to let you know about other products or services we, our related entities or a third party make available and that may be of interest to you. We will always let you know that you can opt out from receiving marketing offers.
With your consent, we may disclose your personal information to related entities or third parties for the purpose of connecting you with other businesses or products. You can ask us not to do this at any time. We won’t sell your personal information to any organisation.
Yes, You Can Opt-Out.
You can let us know at any time if you no longer wish to receive direct marketing offers from us. We will process your request as soon as practicable.
How we use your credit information?
As part of our use of your personal information, we may also utilize your credit information for the following purposes:
- Evaluating whether to approve a guarantor or determine the potential risk of a guarantor being unable to fulfill their obligations
- Reviewing hardship requests
- Assessing the feasibility of securitizing loans and arranging the securitization process.
How long do you keep your information?
At ProLend Solutions, we understand that certain laws, including the Corporations Act, the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, and the Financial Transaction Reports Act, require us to keep some of your information for specific periods. As a result, we are obligated to retain your information for at least 7 years from the closure of your accounts, or for as long as necessary for our business operations or in accordance with applicable laws.
In some cases, we may need to keep certain personal information beyond the period of our provision of products or services to you. This could include retaining information to enforce our terms, prevent fraud, identify, issue or resolve legal claims, or for proper record keeping.
Who do we share your personal information with?
We understand that sharing your personal information is sometimes necessary to provide you with the best service possible and for the purposes outlined in our Privacy Policy. We may share your information with other organizations for any purpose that we use your information for.
Sharing your information
We may share your information with credit reporting agencies or other approved third parties who are authorized to assess the validity of identification information, fraud reporting agencies, service providers that assist with fraud detection and prevention, organizations involved in surveying or registering a security property or which otherwise have an interest in such property, rating agencies to the extent necessary to allow the rating of particular investments, any party involved in securitizing your facility, including the Reserve Bank of Australia (sometimes this information is de-identified), re-insurers and underwriters, loan servicers, trust managers, trustees and security trustees, businesses assisting us with funding for loans, service providers that maintain, review and develop our business systems, procedures and technology infrastructure, payment systems organizations including merchants, payment organizations that produce cards, chequebooks or statements, our joint venture partners, organizations that assist with product planning, research and development, government or regulatory bodies, your representative or any person acting on your behalf (for example, lawyers, settlement agents, accountants or real estate agents), any of our associates, related entities or contractors, mortgage intermediaries, brokers, trade insurers, guarantors, referees (such as your employer, to verify information you have provided), advisors, auditors, agents, accountants, lawyers, solicitors, financial planners, insurers, tribunals or courts, government bodies, external dispute resolution bodies and in any instances where we are required by law.
We will retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. We will take appropriate measures to safeguard your personal information while it is in our possession. If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us.
How you can generally access your information
At ProLend Solutions, we are committed to providing you with access to your personal information unless there are legal reasons why we can’t. If you would like to access your personal information that we hold, you can request it in writing, and in some cases, we may be able to handle your request over the phone.
We will provide your personal information to you in the format you prefer, as long as it is reasonable and practical. If we need to charge a small fee to cover our costs when providing you with access, we will inform you beforehand.
There may be situations where we are not obligated to provide you with access to your personal information. For instance, if we believe that providing the information may endanger public safety or an individual’s life, or if there would be an unreasonable impact on other individuals. Additionally, we may not be able to provide you with access if the request is frivolous, or if legal proceedings make the information inaccessible.
Furthermore, we may not be able to provide you with access to your information if it would harm negotiations with you, be unlawful, jeopardize taking action against serious misconduct by you, or harm the activities of an enforcement body such as the police. Finally, if providing the information would harm the confidentiality of our commercial information, we may also be unable to provide it.
If we cannot provide you with the information in the format you requested, we will explain why in writing. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us through our ‘Contact Us’ page.
How to access your credit eligibility information
Where you request access to credit information about you that we’ve got from credit reporting bodies, we will:
- provide you access to the information within 30 days (unless unusual circumstances apply);
- ask you to check with the credit reporting bodies what information they hold about you. If we can’t give you access, we will tell you why in writing.
How do you correct your personal information?
How we correct your information
If you request access to the credit information that we have obtained from credit reporting agencies, we will grant you access to the information within a period of 30 days, unless there are exceptional circumstances that require additional time. Additionally, we may advise you to verify with the credit reporting bodies to determine the information they have on you. If for some reason we are unable to provide you access to the credit information, we will provide you with a written explanation detailing the reasons why we cannot grant you access.
In regards to correcting your credit information, if you request that we correct any errors, we will assist you in the following manner. Whether the mistake was made by us or another party, we are obligated to assist you in requesting that the information be corrected. In order to accomplish this, we may need to communicate with others. However, the most efficient way for you to request a correction is to send it directly to the organization responsible for the error.
If we are able to correct the information, we will notify you within five business days of our decision to do so. We will also inform any relevant third parties, as well as any others you may have identified to us. In instances where we are unable to make corrections, we will inform you in writing within five business days of making this decision.
If we agree to correct your information, we will do so within 30 days from the time you made the request, or a longer period that has been mutually agreed upon. If we are unable to make corrections within the specified timeframe, we will inform you of the reasons for the delay and when we anticipate resolving the issue. We will also request that you agree in writing to give us more time, and inform you that you can make a complaint to our external dispute resolution scheme or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
How do you make a complaint?
If you have a complaint about how we handle your personal information, we encourage you to contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details provided above. We are dedicated to resolving your complaint in a timely manner and ensuring that we do right by our customers. Most complaints are resolved promptly, and you should hear from us within five business days.
Need more help?
If you still feel your issue hasn’t been resolved to your satisfaction, then you can raise your concern with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:
Online: www.oaic.gov.au/privacy
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Mail: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 or GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601
What additional things do we have to do to manage your complaints about credit information?
In case you have complaints regarding how we managed your credit information access and correction requests, you can directly approach the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or our external dispute resolution scheme. It is not mandatory to allow us to attempt to resolve the issue first.
For any other complaints relating to credit information, we will inform you within seven days about how we intend to deal with it. If we cannot resolve the matter within 30 days, we will explain the reason and the expected timeframe to fix it. We will also seek your consent for an extension of time to resolve the issue.
If you have any concerns, you can approach our external dispute resolution scheme or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to raise a complaint.
Letting you know about our decision
We’ll let you know about our decision within 30 days or any longer agreed time frame. If you have any concerns, you may complain to our external dispute resolution scheme or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Contact Details for Credit Reporting Bodies
We may collect and share your information with one or more credit reporting bodies when we check your credit history. To ensure transparency, we are providing the contact details of the credit reporting bodies we use below. Please note that each credit reporting body has its own privacy policy that outlines how it handles your information.
Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Ltd:
Website: www.mycreditfile.com.au
Privacy Policy: www.equifax.com.au/credit-reporting-policy
Mail: Equifax Public Access, PO Box 964, North Sydney NSW 2059
We understand the importance of protecting your credit information. If you suspect that you have been or are likely to become a victim of fraud, you can request a credit reporting body not to use or disclose any credit information they have about you. The credit reporting body must not use or disclose your information without your consent for the initial 21 days. If the credit reporting body has reasonable grounds to believe that you are likely to continue to be a victim of fraud, they may extend this period. In such cases, they must provide you with a written notice of the extension.
Contact Us
Our commitment to protecting your privacy is of utmost importance to us at ProLend Solutions. If you have any inquiries or remarks regarding our privacy policies and practices, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We value and appreciate your feedback.
To get in touch with us, you can use the following contact information:
Privacy Officer
Address: Lvl 4 Evandale Place, 142 Bundall Road, Bundall, QLD, 4217
Phone: 1300 215 334
Email: info@prolendsolutions.com.au
We will strive to promptly address any concerns or questions you may have about the privacy of your personal information.
What if you want to interact with us anonymously or use a pseudonym?
Suppose you prefer to communicate with us without revealing your identity or using a fictitious name. In that case, you can choose to do so when making general inquiries. However, please note that we may not always be able to accommodate your request due to regulatory requirements that necessitate us to establish the identity of our clients. We typically cannot engage with you anonymously or under a pseudonym if: • it is not feasible to do so; or • we are legally required or mandated by a court or tribunal to communicate with you directly.
What do we do with government-related identifiers?
There may be instances where we need to gather documentation that contains government-related identifiers, including your tax file number. Rest assured, we will not utilize or reveal this sensitive information unless we have received legal authorization to do so.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
The duration for which we retain your information is subject to change, and we may update our Privacy Policy accordingly. In the event of any modifications to this Policy, we will notify you by posting the revised version on our website. Alternatively, you can request the most current version of our Privacy Policy by contacting us directly.
