Privacy Policy Statement - Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) Limited (the "Bank")

Notice to Customers relating to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (the "Ordinance")

(a)

From time to time, it is necessary for customers to supply the Bank with data in connection with the opening or continuation of accounts and the establishment or continuation of banking facilities or provision of banking services.

(b)

Failure to supply such data may result in the Bank being unable to open or continue accounts or establish or continue banking facilities or provide banking services.

(c)

It is also the case that data are collected from customers in the ordinary course of the continuation of the banking relationship, for example, when customers write cheques or deposit money or otherwise carry out transactions as part of the Bank's services. The Bank will also collect data relating to the customer from third parties, including third party service providers with whom the customer interacts in connection with the marketing of the Bank's products and services and in connection with the customer's application for the Bank's products and services (including receiving personal data from credit reference agencies approved for participation in the Multiple Credit Reference Agencies Model (hereinafter referred to as “credit reference agencies”)).

(d)

The purposes for which data relating to a customer may be used are as follows:

(i)

considering and assessing the customer's application for the Bank's products and services;

(ii)

the daily operation of the services and credit facilities provided to customers;

(iii)

conducting credit checks at the time of application for credit and at the time of regular or special reviews which normally will take place one or more times each year;

(iv)

creating and maintaining the Bank's credit scoring models;

(v)

assisting other credit providers in Hong Kong approved for participation in the Multiple Credit Reference Agencies Model (hereinafter referred to as “credit providers” ) to conduct credit checks and collect debts;

(vi)

ensuring ongoing credit worthiness of customers;

(vii)

designing financial services or related products for customers' use;

(viii)

marketing services ,products and other subjects (please see further details in paragraph (g) below);

(ix)

determining the amounts owed to or by customers;

(x)

collection of amounts outstanding from customers and those providing security for customers' obligations;

(xi)

complying with the obligations, requirements or arrangements for disclosing and using data that apply to the Bank or that it is expected to comply according to:

(1)	any law binding or applying to it within or outside the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("Hong Kong SAR") existing currently and in the future (e.g. the Inland Revenue Ordinance and its provisions including those concerning automatic exchange of financial account information);
(2)	any guidelines or guidance given or issued by any legal, regulatory, governmental, tax, law enforcement or other authorities, or self-regulatory or industry bodies or associations of financial services providers within or outside the Hong Kong SAR existing currently and in the future (e.g. guidelines or guidance given or issued by the Inland Revenue Department including those concerning automatic exchange of financial account information);
(3)	any present or future contractual or other commitment with local or foreign legal, regulatory, governmental, tax, law enforcement or other authorities, or self-regulatory or industry bodies or associations of financial services providers that is assumed by or imposed on the Bank by reason of its financial, commercial, business or other interests or activities in or related to the jurisdiction of the relevant local or foreign legal, regulatory, governmental, tax, law enforcement or other authority, or self-regulatory or industry bodies or associations;

(xii)

complying with any obligations, requirements, policies, procedures, measures or arrangements for sharing data and information within the group of the Bank and/or any other use of data and information in accordance with any group-wide programmes for compliance with sanctions or prevention or detection of money laundering, terrorist financing or other unlawful activities;

(xiii)

enabling an actual or proposed assignee of the Bank, or participant or sub-participant of the Bank's rights in respect of the customer to evaluate the transaction intended to be the subject of the assignment, participation or sub-participation; and

(xiv)

purposes relating thereto.

(e)

Data held by the Bank relating to a customer will be kept confidential but the Bank may, where it considers necessary or appropriate, provide such information to the following parties for the purposes set out in paragraph (d) above:-

(i)

any agent, contractor or third party service provider who provides administrative, telecommunications, computer, payment or securities clearing or other services to the Bank in connection with the operation of its business;

(ii)

any other person under a duty of confidentiality to the Bank including a group company of the Bank which has undertaken to keep such information confidential;

(iii)

the drawee bank providing a copy of a paid cheque (which may contain information about the payee) to the drawer;

(iv)

third party service providers with whom the customer has chosen to interact with in connection with the customer's application for the Bank’s products and services;

(v)

credit reference agencies (including the operator of any centralized database used by credit reference agencies),and, in the event of default, to debt collection agencies;

(vi)

any person to whom the Bank is under an obligation or otherwise required to make disclosure under the requirements of any law binding on or applying to the Bank, or any disclosure under and for the purposes of any guidelines or guidance given or issued by any legal, regulatory, governmental, tax, law enforcement or other authorities, or self-regulatory or industry bodies or associations of financial services providers with which the Bank are expected to comply, or any disclosure pursuant to any contractual or other commitment of the Bank with local or foreign legal, regulatory, governmental, tax, law enforcement or other authorities, or self-regulatory or industry bodies or associations of financial services providers, all of which may be within or outside the Hong Kong SAR and may be existing currently and in the future;

(vii)

any actual or proposed assignee of the Bank or participant or sub-participant or transferee of the Bank's rights in respect of the customer; and

(viii)

(1)	the Bank's group companies;
(2)	third party financial institutions, insurers, credit card companies, securities and investment services providers;
(3)	third party reward, loyalty, co-branding and privileges programme providers;
(4)	co-branding partners of the Bank and the Bank's group companies (the names of such co-branding partners can be found in the application form(s) for the relevant services and products, as the case may be);
(5)	charitable or non-profit making organizations; and
(6)	external service providers (including but not limited to mailing houses, telecommunications companies, telemarketing and direct sales agents, call centres, data processing companies and information technology companies) that the Bank engages for the purposes set out in paragraph (d) (viii) above.

Such information may be transferred to a place outside Hong Kong SAR.

(f)

With respect to data in connection with mortgages applied by a customer (whether as a borrower, mortgagor or guarantor and whether in the customer's sole name or in joint names with others) on or after 1 April 2011, the following data relating to the customer (including any updated data of any of the following data from time to time) may be provided by the Bank, on its own behalf and/or as agent, to credit reference agencies:

(i)	full name;
(ii)	capacity in respect of each mortgage (as borrower, mortgagor or guarantor, and whether in the customer's sole name or in joint names with others);
(iii)	Hong Kong Identity Card Number or travel document number;
(iv)	date of birth;
(v)	correspondence address;
(vi)	mortgage account number in respect of each mortgage;
(vii)	type of the facility in respect of each mortgage;
(viii)	mortgage account status in respect of each mortgage (e.g., active, closed, write-off (other than due to a bankruptcy order), write-off due to a bankruptcy order); and
(ix)	if any, mortgage account closed date in respect of each mortgage.

Credit reference agencies will use the above data supplied by the Bank for the purposes of compiling a count of the number of mortgages from time to time held by the customer with credit providers, as borrower, mortgagor or guarantor respectively and whether in the customer's sole name or in joint names with others, for sharing in the consumer credit databases of credit reference agencies by credit providers (subject to the requirements of the Code of Practice on Consumer Credit Data approved and issued under the Ordinance).

(g)

USE OF DATA IN DIRECT MARKETING
The Bank intends to use a customer's data in direct marketing and the Bank requires the customer's consent (which includes an indication of no objection) for that purpose. In this connection, please note that:

(i)

the name, contact details, products and services portfolio information, transaction pattern and behaviour, financial background and demographic data of a customer held by the Bank from time to time may be used by the Bank in direct marketing;

(ii)

the following classes of services, products and subjects may be marketed:

(1)	financial, insurance, credit card, banking and related services and products;
(2)	reward, loyalty or privileges programmes and related services and products;
(3)	services and products offered by the Bank's co-branding partners (the names of such co-branding partners can be found in the application form(s) for the relevant services and products, as the case may be); and
(4)	donations and contributions for charitable and/or non-profit making purposes;

(iii)

the above services, products and subjects may be provided or (in the case of donations and contributions) solicited by the Bank and/or:

(1)	the Bank's group companies;
(2)	third party financial institutions, insurers, credit card companies, securities and investment services providers;
(3)	third party reward, loyalty, co-branding or privileges programme providers;
(4)	co-branding partners of the Bank and the Bank's group companies (the names of such co-branding partners can be found in the application form(s) for the relevant services and products, as the case may be); and
(5)	co-branding partners of the Bank and the Bank's group companies (the names of such co-branding partners can be found in the application form(s) for the relevant services and products, as the case may be); and

(iv)

in addition to marketing the above services, products and subjects itself, the Bank also intends to provide the data described in paragraph (g)(i) above to all or any of the persons described in paragraph (g)(iii) above for use by them in marketing those services, products and subjects, and the Bank requires the customer's written consent (which includes an indication of no objection) for that purpose;

(v)

The Bank may receive money or other property in return for providing the data to the other persons in paragraph (g)(iv) above and, when requesting the customer's consent or no objection as described in paragraph (g)(iv) above, the Bank will inform the customer if it will receive any money or other property in return for providing the data to the other persons.

If a customer does not wish the Bank to use or provide to other persons his data for use in direct marketing as described above, the customer may exercise his opt-out right by notifying the Bank.

(h)

TRANSFER OF PERSONAL DATA TO CUSTOMER’S THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS USING BANK APPLICATION PROGAMMING INTERFACES (API)
The Bank may, in accordance with the customer’s instructions to the Bank or third party service providers engaged by the customer, transfer customer’s data to third party service providers using the Bank’s API for the purposes notified to the customer by the Bank or third party service providers and/or as consented to by the customer in accordance with the Ordinance.

(i)

Under and in accordance with the terms of the Ordinance and the Code of Practice on Consumer Credit Data approved and issued under the Ordinance, any customer has the right:

(i)

to check whether the Bank holds data about him/her and of access to such data;

(ii)

to require the Bank to correct any data relating to him/her which is inaccurate;

(iii)

to ascertain the Bank's policies and practices in relation to data and to be informed of the kind of personal data held by the Bank;

(iv)

to be informed on request which items of data are routinely disclosed to credit reference agencies or debt collection agencies, and be provided with further information to enable the making of access and correction requests to the relevant credit reference agency(ies) or debt collection agency(ies); and

(v)

in relation to any account data (including, for the avoidance of doubt, any account repayment data) which has been provided by the Bank to a credit reference agency, to instruct the Bank, upon termination of the account by full repayment, to make a request to the credit reference agency to delete such account data from its database, as long as the instruction is given within five years of termination and at no time was there any default of payment in relation to the account, lasting in excess of 60 days within five years immediately before account termination. Account repayment data include amount last due, amount of payment made during the last reporting period (being a period not exceeding 31 days immediately preceding the last contribution of account data by the Bank to the credit reference agency), remaining available credit or outstanding balance and default data (being amount past due and number of days past due, date of settlement of amount past due, and date of final settlement of amount in default lasting in excess of 60 days (if any)).

(j)

In the event of any default of payment relating to an account, unless the amount in default is fully repaid or written off (other than due to a bankruptcy order) before the expiry of 60 days from the date such default occurred, the account repayment data (as defined in paragraph (i)(v) above) may be retained by credit reference agencies until the expiry of five years from the date of final settlement of the amount in default.

(k)

In the event any amount in an account is written-off due to a bankruptcy order being made against a customer, the account repayment data (as defined in paragraph (i)(v) above) may be retained by credit reference agencies, regardless of whether the account repayment data reveal any default of payment lasting in excess of 60 days, until the expiry of five years from the date of final settlement of the amount in default or the expiry of five years from the date of discharge from a bankruptcy as notified by the customer with evidence to the credit reference agency(ies), whichever is earlier.

(l)

In accordance with the terms of the Ordinance, the Bank has the right to charge a reasonable fee for the processing of any data access request.

(m)

The person to whom requests for access to data or correction of data or for information regarding policies and practices and kinds of data held are to be addressed is as follows:

The Data Protection Officer
Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) Limited
20 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong
Fax: 2833 6561

(n)

The Bank may have obtained credit report(s) on the customer from credit reference agency(ies) in considering any application for credit. In the event the customer wishes to access the credit report(s), the Bank will advise the contact details of the relevant credit reference agency(ies).

(o)

Nothing in this Notice shall limit the rights of customers under the Ordinance.

Date: September, 2022
Note: In case of discrepancies between the English and Chinese versions of this Notice, the English version shall prevail.

Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) Limited (A wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Communications Co., Ltd.)