We Will Protect the Confidentiality
Of Your Information
We value our banking relationship with you. Our goal is to serve you as effectively and conveniently as possible, and to make sure you feel confident that information about your banking relationship with us is treated with the utmost care.
Security, integrity and confidentiality are the watchwords of our banking philosophy and are the foundation blocks of our success. We know that you expect us to meet the highest standards of performance, and we work diligently to meet your expectations.
Our policies for the handling of personally identifiable information about your banking relationships with us are grounded in these important business principles.
At CharterBank, the basis of each customer relationship, many of which span generations, is trust. You have chosen to do business with CharterBank, and we are obligated to honor that relationship with great care, beginning with the information you have chosen to share with us. We believe that your privacy should not be compromised. At the same time, we want to offer you the array of products and services you need to accomplish your financial goals. We believe we can do both through the privacy policy outlined below.
First Charter MHC affiliates:
Charter Financial Corporation
CharterBank
At CharterBank, we believe the confidentiality and protection of customer information is one of our fundamental responsibilities. And while information is critical to providing quality service, we recognize that one of our most important assets is our customers' trust. Thus, the safekeeping of customer information is a priority for CharterBank.
In order to assist you with your financial needs and provide excellent customer service, it is often necessary to collect and maintain certain types of customer information. We will collect or retain nonpublic information about you from the following sources:
- Applications or other forms that you provide to us, information such as your name, address, social security number, assets, income and investment objectives;
- Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates and others, such as payment history and account balances;
- Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency, such as your credit worthiness and credit history.
* Nonpublic personal information does not include information available from government records, widely distributed media, or government mandated disclosures.
CharterBank does not disclose nonpublic personal information about our customers or former customers to nonaffiliated third parties, except as permitted by law. This may result in the disclosure of customer information in certain situations, including:
- To effect, administer, or enforce a transaction that you request or authorize
- To protect the integrity and security of your records
- To prevent actual or potential fraud, unauthorized transactions, claims or other liability
- To the extent specifically permitted or required under the Right to Financial Privacy Act
- To a consumer reporting agency in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act
- To comply with federal, state, or local laws, rules and other applicable legal requirements
There are certain other situations where we may provide customer information to companies that we use to perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements. In these situations we may disclose any or all of the nonpublic personal information described above in the section titled Categories of Information That We Collect. We do not provide account or personal information to non-CharterBank companies for the purpose of independent telemarketing or direct mail marketing of any non-financial products or services of those companies. CharterBank does not sell customer information to outside parties.
In situations where customer information is shared, we require other parties to treat and maintain the privacy of your customer information to at least the same extent and with the same degree of diligence and careful attention that is required by CharterBank. They are not permitted to release, use for their own purposes, or sell any customer information we share with them to any other party.
Affiliates are financial service companies that are part of the CharterBank family through common ownership or control, and are listed at the beginning of this privacy policy. Our
affiliates share nonpublic personal information internally among ourselves so that we can serve you more efficiently, offer you new services such as mortgages, insurance and investments, and reduce the amount of information you need to furnish every time you deal with us. We are permitted by law to share with our affiliates information about your transactions or experiences with us which includes but is not limited to: 1.) Identifying information, 2.) Payment history, 3.) Credit card usage, 4.) Account balance, and 5.) Parties to transactions.
CharterBank takes your privacy expectations very seriously. We even limit the availability of your information to CharterBank employees. CharterBank employees are required to follow our Company's code of conduct, which states that all customer information is considered private and privileged and is to be used to assist you in completing transactions, offering additional financial services and resolving any problems that might arise. We educate our employees about the importance of confidentiality and customer privacy. We have appropriate policies to enforce employee responsibility regarding the privacy of customer information.
Furthermore, as technology becomes more advanced, CharterBank is continually modifying its physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to ensure compliance with federal and state standards and to protect your nonpublic personal information. We update and test our technology to improve the protection of our customer information and to protect the integrity of our information.
As set forth in this privacy notice, we do not engage in any practices which would give rise to an opt out right under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or Fair Credit Reporting Act.
We continually strive to maintain complete and accurate information about you and your accounts. We have procedures to help assure that your personal information is accurate, current and complete. If you become aware of any inaccurate information, please help us correct it by contacting our FirstCall customer service department at 1-800-763-4444 or visit your local CharterBank branch.
CharterBank is committed to preserving the integrity of our customer account relationships. Accordingly, our online services utilize advanced Internet security technology.
- Encryption - Information transmitted while accessing account information over the Internet is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Technology.
- Authentication - Our online services require that you authenticate your identity using your Social Security Number along with your Personal Identification Number (PIN).
CharterBank recognizes and respects the privacy expectations of our customers. We want our customers to understand our commitment to privacy in our use of customer information. As a result of our commitment, we have developed these Privacy Principles which are made readily available to our customers. CharterBank will provide notice of our privacy policy annually, as long as you maintain an ongoing relationship with us. This policy may change from time to time, so please check with your local CharterBank branch, the CharterBank web site, www.charterbank.net, or call 1-706-645-1391 or 1-800-763-4444 for the most up-to-date copy.
REV June 2006
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