OUR COMMITMENT TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY 

Australian Loans & Mortgages Pty Ltd ACN 142 403 790, Australian Credit Licence 385213 and its related businesses (collectively known as “AL&M” and also referred to in this Policy as “us,” “we” and “our”) seeks to provide the best possible service to its customers by providing the best possible range of financial products and services. 

We understand how important it is to protect your personal information. This document sets out our Privacy Policy commitment in respect of personal information that you may provide to us. 

We recognise that any personal information we collect about you will only be used for the purposes indicated in our policy, where we have your consent to do so, or as otherwise required or authorised by law. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we collect from you or that is received by us will be treated with appropriate respect ensuring protection of your personal information. 

Our commitment in respect of personal information is to abide by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any other relevant law. 

 

WHO IS AL&M? 

AL&M acts as a lender to provide credit to approved applicants. We process and assess information in respect of loan applications. We may also market our products and services. 

 

PERSONAL INFORMATION 

When we refer to personal information we mean information or an opinion about you, from which you are, or may reasonably be, identified. 
This information may include (but is not limited to) your name, date of birth, driver’s licence number, marital status, number and age of your dependents, phone number, email address, address, nationality, and employment history. Credit information is information which is used to assess your eligibility for a loan and may include information about your income, assets, liabilities and repayment history information.   

Due to the nature of the services provided by us, some of the information we collect may be sensitive information, including details about your health, race or ethnic background. For example, you may be asked to provide information about whether or not you are an Aborigine or Torres Straight Islander or if you are applying for insurance we may ask you information about pre-existing medical conditions. If you make an application for your loan to be varied on the grounds of hardship we may also collect health information about you.

It is not common practice for us to collect other sensitive information about you (such as information about your religion, trade union membership, political opinion, sexual preference or criminal record). We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent.

 

WHY WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION 

We collect and receive personal information about you to conduct our business, including assessing and obtaining approval for loans, arranging and providing credit and the direct marketing of our products and services. If you are applying for accreditation as a broker or introducer of loans and other products we may also collect personal information about you.  

 

HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? 

Personal information may be collected by us in a number of circumstances, including when an individual:

• makes an enquiry with us via email or telephone apply to be a borrower or guarantor of one of the loans we make in our capacity as a lender;

• attend an event hosted by us; or 

• apply for employment with us;

• apply for accreditation as a broker or introducer of our loans or other products.  

Where reasonable and practical we will collect your personal information only directly from you. However, we will also collect information about you from third parties such as a partner or spouse who contacts us on your behalf, from our contractors who supply services to us, through brokers and introducers, from advisers such as accountants or lawyers or other organisations authorised by you.  

If you do not provide the information requested by us, we may not be able to provide you with our services.

If you provide personal information to us about someone else, you must ensure that you are entitled to disclose that information to us and that, without us taking any further steps required by privacy laws, we may collect, use and disclose such information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. For example, you should take reasonable steps to ensure the individual concerned is aware of the various matters detailed in this Privacy Policy. The individual must also provide the consents set out in this Privacy Policy in respect of how we will deal with their personal information.

We may also collect credit-related personal information about you as a result of credit checks that you authorise us to carry out. 

The kinds of credit-related personal information we may collect about you includes:

• information about your identity;

• information about consumer credit loans that you currently have applied for including: 

• repayment history information, 

• the type and amount of credit sought in each application;

• default and payment information, 

• information about any court proceedings; and 

• information about your personal solvency.

 

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We use your personal information for the purpose for which it has been provided, for reasonably related secondary purposes, any other purpose you have consented to and any other purpose permitted under the Privacy Act. This may include using your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide you with the products or services you requested;

• to verify your identity;

• to assess, process and manage your application to be a borrower or guarantor including to verify your details and assess our risk; 

• to assess, process and manage your application for employment;

• for complaints handling or data analytics purposes;

• preventing or investigating any fraud or crime or any suspected fraud or crime;

• as required by law, regulation or codes binding it; and

• to assess, process and manage your application for accreditation as a broker or introducer of loans.

When assessing an application to be a borrower or guarantor, we may use your credit-related personal information for the purposes of assessing the application, assessing your credit-worthiness or managing the finance provided to you. 

 

TO WHOM WILL WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? 

To enable us to maintain a successful business relationship with you, we may disclose your personal information to: 

• organisations that provide products or services used or marketed by us, including other credit providers, mortgage intermediaries (such as mortgage brokers, mortgage originators and mortgage managers), funders, lenders, valuers, trustee companies, financial institutions and securitisers, mortgage insurers, title insurers, surveyors, credit reporting agencies, rating agencies and debt collectors; 

• your employer/s or referees, your professional advisors, your bank and any other organisation that may have or is considering having an interest in your loan, or in our business;

• any industry body, government authority, tribunal, court or otherwise in connection with any complaint regarding our services;

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

• companies and contractors who we retain to provide services for us, such as IT contractors, call centres, stationery printing houses, mail houses, storage facilities, risk and compliance providers, lawyers, accountants and auditors, who will need to have access to your personal information to provide those services;

• people considering acquiring an interest in our business or assets; and

• other individuals or companies authorised by you.

By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us disclosing your information to such entities without obtaining your consent on a case by case basis.

Sometimes we are required or authorised by law to disclose your personal information. Circumstances in which we may disclose your personal information would be to a Court, Tribunal or law enforcement agency in response to a request or in response to a subpoena or to the Australian Taxation Office. 

Some of third party service providers, including our information technology service providers are in countries outside of Australia. For example, we may use cloud storage to store the personal information we hold about you. Although our contracts with these parties generally include an obligation for them to comply with Australian privacy law and our Privacy Policy, some of these countries do not have laws that provide the same level of protection as the laws of Australia.

 

NOTIFIABLE MATTERS

We may provide your credit information to a credit reporting body.  The credit reporting body may provide the information that we report about you to other credit providers to assist them to assess your credit worthiness.  We may also obtain information that other credit providers have provided to the credit reporting body to use in our assessments of your credit-worthiness.

If you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to any loan that we have provided to you, or any loan that we have arranged for you, or if you commit a serious credit infringement, we may report this to the credit reporting body.  

You may access the credit information that we hold about you. Please refer to the section titled ‘Access to your Personal Information’ below.  You may also request that we correct any credit information that we hold about you if you believe the information is incorrect. Please refer to the section titled ‘Updating your Personal Information’ below.  

The information that we provide to a credit reporting body may sometimes be used for ‘pre-screening’ of direct marketing offers to be made by another credit provider.  You may contact the credit reporting body to request that your credit information is not used in this way.  

You may also contact the credit reporting body to request that they not use or disclose the credit-reporting information they hold about you if you consider that you may have been a victim of fraud or if you believe on reasonable grounds that the information they hold about you is incorrect.  The credit reporting body must not use or disclose your credit information for a period of 21 days after receiving your notice.  

For further information, contact the following credit reporting bodies at:

• www.eqifax.com.au;

• www.illion.com.au;

• www.experian.com.au.  

 

DIRECT MARKETING 

From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with current information about our products, special offers you may find of interest, changes to our organisation, or new products or services being offered by us or any company we are associated with. By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us using your information to contact you on an ongoing basis for this purpose, including by mail, email, SMS, social media and telephone. 

If you do not wish to receive marketing information, you may at any time decline to receive such information by contacting our Privacy Contacts using the contact details below. 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 our relationship that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. During our relationship with you we will ask you to inform us if any of your personal information has changed. 

If you consider that any information we hold about you is incorrect, you should contact us to have it updated. We will generally rely on you to assist us in informing us if the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete. 

 

ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION 

We will provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you, subject to limited exceptions in the Privacy Act as outlined below. You may request access to any of the personal information we hold about you, at any time. 

To access personal information that we hold about you, use the contact details specified below. We may charge a fee for our reasonable costs in retrieving and supplying the information to you.

 

DENIED ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION 

There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal information. For example, such a situation would be information relating to an existing or anticipated legal proceeding with you, or if your request is vexatious. 

An explanation will be provided to you if we deny you access to your personal information we hold. 

 

BUSINESS WITHOUT IDENTIFYING YOU 

In most circumstances it will be necessary for us to identify you to successfully do business with you, however, 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. Such a situation would be where 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, including your credit-related personal information, by storing it in a secure environment, and when the information is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed, it will be destroyed or permanently de-identified. 

We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. 

 

FURTHER INFORMATION AND COMPLAINTS 

You may request further information about the way we manage your personal information or lodge a complaint by contacting our Privacy Officer(s) on the contact details below. 

We will deal with any complaint by investigating the complaint and providing a response to the complainant within 15 business days, if we have all necessary information and have completed any investigation required. In cases where further information, assessment or investigation is required, we will seek to agree alternative time frames with you.

If you are not satisfied with how we manage your complaint after you have been through our internal complaints process, there are free independent dispute resolution services available to you.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) can consider most complaints involving financial service providers.

If your complaint is about how we handle your personal information, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) 

Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
GPO Box 3
Melbourne VIC 3001
Phone 1800 931 678
Visit www.afca.org.au  

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Phone 1300 363 992
Visit www.oaic.gov.au 

 

CONTACT DETAILS 

You can contact us by calling us on 1300 552 755 or by writing to:

The Privacy Officer
Australian Loans & Mortgages Pty Ltd
Suite 3, Level 9, 56 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000

 

ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF OUR PRIVACY POLICY

If you would prefer to receive a copy of our Privacy Policy, including the ‘Notifiable Matters’ in an alternative form (such as in hard copy or via email) please contact us on the phone number and email address provided under the section titled ‘Contact Details’ above. We will be pleased to comply with your request.

 

CHANGE IN OUR PRIVACY POLICY 

We are constantly reviewing all our policies and attempt to keep up to date with market expectations. Technology is constantly changing, as is the law and market practices.

Consequently, we may change this Privacy Policy from time to time or as the need arises. This Privacy Policy was last updated on July 2019.