Privacy Statement
Protecting customer information received through
all of our service channels - at banking offices, via ATMs, by telephone, and
through our Web site - is of the highest importance to us.
At Preferred Bank we understand that our customers ("you" or
"your") have an expectation that the personal information you provide
to us is to be kept confidential. Accordingly,
we have a long-standing policy of protecting confidential information about you
and your transactions. Our privacy
policy, described below, applies not only to written files, but also to personal
information you provide us through transactions you conduct on-line, by
telephone, or when you send us E-mail.
Collection and Retention of Non-Public
Personal Information - We collect and retain information about you to
identify and communicate with you, to provide you with products and services you
have requested, to help us respond to your questions, and to inform you about
other financial services that may be of interest to you.
We collect the following types of non-public personal information about you from
the following sources:
-
Information we receive about your identity, such as your name, address,
social security number, or driver's license numbers;
-
Information about your transactions with us,
or others, such as your account balance, loan payment history, or ATM, debit
or credit card usage;
-
Information that we receive from you on
applications or other forms, such as information about your income and
assets;
-
Information we receive from consumer reporting
agencies, such as your credit history and creditworthiness; and
-
Information we receive from marketing analysis
companies for marketing purposes, such as economic and demographic data.
Disclosure of Non-Public Personal
Information to Non-Affiliated Third Parties - We do not disclose
non-public personal information about you or our former customers to
non-affiliated third parties, except as permitted or required by law.
We may disclose all of the information we collect, as described in the Collection
and Retention of Non-Public Personal Information section above, to
companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial
institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements to offer financial
products and services to you.
Disclosure of Non-Public Personal
Information in Other Circumstances - We may also disclose non-public
personal information about you as necessary to effect, administer, or enforce
transactions that you have requested or authorized, or in connection with
servicing or processing a financial product or service you have requested or
authorized, or to maintain or service your accounts with us, or as otherwise
described below. We normally
disclose information:
-
When it is necessary or helpful in completing a transaction;
-
To verify the existence and condition of your
account for a third party, such as a merchant, another financial institution
or a credit reporting agency;
-
To an account verification service, in
addition to a credit reporting agency, if we close your account due to
unsatisfactory handling, fraud, attempted fraud or criminal activity;
-
To comply with a law, regulation, legal
process or court order which applies to us or to an affiliate;
-
In response to an inquiry about sufficient
funds to cover a check you have written;
-
When you authorize us to;
-
To other companies, financial institutions and
networks which may be involved in processing your transactions;
-
To local, state or federal authorities, if we
believe a crime may have been committed;
-
To paying agencies after the death or
incapacity of a recipient or beneficiary of recurring direct deposit
payments;
-
To our agents and affiliates and to third
parties who perform services or functions on our behalf to facilitate the
delivery of information related to your accounts or to other financial
services that may be of interest to you;
-
In response to requests by our regulatory
agencies or requests by agents of the Bank or its affiliated companies, such
as independent auditors, consultants or attorneys.
Our Employees’ Access to and Use of Customer Information -
Each of our employees has responsibility for maintaining the confidentiality of
customer information. We require
all of our employees to agree in writing to protect the confidentiality of
customer information and to use it only for our business purposes.
Our policy is to prohibit employees from accessing your personal
information unless there is a business reason to do so.
Internal access and sharing of information about you within our various
service units occurs to evaluate, structure and facilitate the services you have
requested or to inform you of other financial services that may be of interest
to you. We train our employees to
recognize the importance of customer confidentiality.
Employees who violate these standards are subject to disciplinary
measures.
Our Security Procedures We also take other steps to safeguard customer information by
maintaining physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with
federal standards to guard your non-public personal information.
Maintaining the Accuracy of Customer InformationWe have procedures to see that customer information is
maintained in a commercially reasonable manner so that it is accurate, current, and complete.
We also have procedures to see that requests to correct inaccurate or
incomplete information are acted upon in a timely manner.
We maintain security standards and procedures to help prevent
unauthorized access to confidential customer information, and we regularly
review, test and update our technology and procedures to improve the security
and accuracy of such information. We
investigate your inquiries about information received from us (or from a credit
bureau reflecting information we have provided) that you believe to be
inaccurate and we take steps to correct information we determine to be
incorrect.
Maintaining Confidentiality in Our Business Relationships with Other
Companies From time to time
we contract with other businesses to perform specific services in support of our
products. When it is necessary to provide confidential customer information to a
third party, we require each business that we select to agree to adhere to the
same privacy standards, laws and regulations that apply to us. That is, we
require such third parties to agree to safeguard non-public personal information
regarding our customers in accordance with our own privacy policies.
On-line Banking Security - At
Preferred Bank we take security very seriously.
The latest methods in Internet system security, as upgraded from time to
time, are used to increase and monitor the integrity and security of our system.
Internet security does not rely on technology
alone. Without everyone's
participation, all the security systems and technology in the world are
worthless. You must treat your User
ID and password with the same care as an ATM or credit card and PIN.
In addition, you must make sure that no one is physically watching when
you enter your password. If you are
logged in to the service, be sure to log off of the service and exist the
browser when you leave the computer unattended.
You should also take standard precautions to keep you system clean and
free from viruses that could be used to capture password keystrokes and
financial information.
If you should have additional questions regarding
the security of our Internet site, please visit our site a www.preferredbank.com
or contact us at 213-891-1188.
Children’s Privacy - Our
web site is directed to a general audience. We do not knowingly solicit or
collect personal information from children on our site.
Availability of Disclosure of Privacy PolicyThis disclosure is available in our
banking offices, and our on-line disclosure of our privacy policy is available
on our Web site at: www.preferredbank.com
This disclosure of our privacy policy applies to
consumers. We reserve the right to
make changes to this policy at any time. We
will notify you if we do so.
