Personal Information

Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual. It includes not only your name, address, age and gender but also your personal financial records, identification number including your social insurance number, personal references and employment records.

Reasons for Asking for Your Personal Information

We obtain most of your information directly from you. The information we ask for depends on which product or service you want. For every product or service we need your name, address and identification with photo. The followings are reasons for asking for your personal information:

• to identify you
• to understand your needs
• to determine your eligibility for products and services
• to provide ongoing services
• to comply with legal requirements

Social Insurance Number (SIN)

We obtain your SIN for reporting your investment income (T5), to comply with the provisions of the federal Income Tax Act, and for administrative purposes to accurately match your personal information with your credit bureau information when applying for our credit product and services.

Financial Information

We also collect your financial information to assess your eligibility for credit product and services.

Releasing Your Information

Under no circumstances do we release your information to third parties without your prior written or verbal consent. Your information may be released:

• to legal counsel representing us
• for the purpose of collecting a debt owed to us
• to comply with a request, inquiry or order from lawful authorities or court
• to an investigative body(-ies) or to government agencies
• to a person who needs information in an emergency that threatens your life health or security

Accessing Your Information

You will have access to your personal information that we have. Request shall be made in writing and presented to the branch where you purchased or opened the product or service. If you provide us with proof of an error or any changes that need to be made on your current information, we will gladly update your information.

Resolving Concern or Complaints

If you have any concerns or complaints about the privacy and confidentiality of your information, Please follow the steps in Resolving Your Complaints section.

1. 1) Be suspicious if someone contacts you unexpectedly online and asks for your personal information.

   A safe strategy is to ignore unsolicited requests for information, no matter how legitimate they appear, especially if they ask for information such as a Social Security number, bank account numbers and passwords. Please remind that we never send you messages asking you to provide us via email with any personal or account information.

2. 2) Always manually enter the web address or bookmark under favorites for the financial institutions websites.

   If you click the linked URL displayed under the spam mail, bulletin boards, loan websites etc. it will redirect you to a fraudulent website to steal your financial and personalinformation. Therefore, it is imperative that you always manually enter the web address or bookmark under the favorites folder.

3. 3) Refrain from accessing you banking account at public network areas.

   Public network areas are vulnerable from being hacked or exposed from malicious codes such as Trojans. Furthermore, accessing your account at public areas is highly risky of leakage of sensitive information. Therefore, we strongly recommend you to avoid accessing your financial account at public areas.

4. 4) Do not open suspicious e-mails and any links posted on the bulletin board. Furthermore, do not open/save suspicious attachments.

   Delete any e-mails that are suspicious or uncertain in nature, that has no affiliation with you, and that contains suspicious attachments.

5. 5) Do not expose your financial information via text, e-messenger, or any other electronic means.

   Exposure of your sensitive information is most vulnerable during electronic means of correspondence. Since hacking is active during texting, e-messenger, or any otherelectronic means, do not share your financial or personal information online (i.e. account number, ID, password etc.)

6. 6) Always log-out after banking online.

   Be sure to log-out after online banking use. If you do not log-out properly, your information may be vulnerable for exposure; therefore always log-out.

7. 7) Phishing Prevention Guide

   Phishing is a combination of personal information (Private data) and Fishing intended to trick you into falsely luring your financial and personal information. Fraudulent websites (phishing websites) will ask you to input such information as account number, SIN, password, PIN etc., and is considered as financial fraud. However, there are ways of preventing from exposing your sensitive information. Phishing prevention methods are as follows: Do not access linked URL sites AND unverified e-mail via online bulletin boards. Do not open e-mail attachments ending with exe, bat, scr, or any other executable files, and do not open compressed files unless you have confirmed the authenticity of the sender. Confirm the validity of the sender's e-mail address if you suspect it is uncertain. Check the authenticity of the financial company's website prior to use/access. Verify its authenticity by simply contacting the related bank, credit card company etc. by telephone.

8. 8) Basic Security Tips

   • Be sure to remind and keep basic security tips and rules to avoid potential threats.
   • Keep your software, apps and device's operating system up to date.
   • Install anti-virus software that prevents, detects and removes malicious programs.
   • Use a firewall program to prevent unauthorized access to your PC.
   • Only use security products from reputable companies.
   • Take advantage of Internet safety features.
   • Be careful where and how you connect to the Internet.
   • Take precautions if you provide financial account information to third parties online.
   • Don't leave your PC or mobile device unattended and use a device password or other security feature to restrict access in case your device is lost or stolen.
   • Back up data on your PC and mobile device.
   • Have the ability to remotely remove data from your device if it is lost or stolen.
   • Don't let anybody make financial transactions for you but yourself.
   • Be careful what you share in using social networking sites:
   • Remember that no financial institution will email you and ask you to put sensitive information such as account numbers and PINs in your response.
   • Assume that a request for information from a bank where you've never opened an account is probably a scam.
   • Verify the validity of a suspicious looking email or a pop-up box before providing personal information.
   • Check your security settings on social network sites.
   • Take precautions when communicating with your bank.
   • Be cautious about giving third-party programs or apps, such as sites for games or quizzes, the ability to use information from your social networking pages.
   • Periodically search to see if someone has created a fake account using your name or personal information on social networking sites.