Disclosure and Use of Personal Information Statements

Who we are

Growth Greater Bank was instituted in 1835 under the Savings Bank (Scotland) Act 1875 and has its Head Office at , , .  The main business of the Bank is providing banking services. We are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and  regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and  the Prudential Regulation Authority. Our firm’s reference number is 204584. We subscribe to the Lending Code and are licensed under the Consumer Credit Act by the Office of Fair Trading under licence number 020348.

Where we obtain your information

Apart from the information you give to us [or our agents], we may collect information about you from:

• other account holders you are connected with;
• credit reference agencies (see below);
• other organisations, including fraud prevention agencies; and
• any joint applicant, if you have given them permission to disclose information to us for a joint account application.

How we use your information and who we share it with

Fraud prevention

We may check your information with fraud prevention agencies.  If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified, details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies. Law enforcement agencies may access and use this information. We and other organisations may also access and use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example, when:

• checking details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities;
• managing credit and credit related accounts or facilities;
• recovering debt;
• checking details on proposals and claims for all types of insurance, or checking details of job applicants and employees

We and other organisations may access and use the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies from other countries.

Credit reference agencies

In order to assess any application that you may make for credit products, or any request for an increase to any existing credit product that we may already provide to you, or to provide you with credit products and services, we will search the records of one or more licensed credit reference agencies to obtain information on you. These agencies may add details of our search and your application to the records they hold on you, whether or not your application proceeds, We may also add details of how your agreement or accounts operate with us to these records, including any defaults or failure to keep to the terms of your agreement and/or any failure to advise us of a change of address where a payment is overdue. Credit searches and other information provided to the credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies about you, and those with whom you are linked financially, may be used and disclosed by such agencies to other companies unrelated to us for the purposes mentioned above. Credit reference agencies will also use the information for statistical analysis about credit, insurance, and fraud.

When submitting a loan application you agree that we may use the information supplied in this application for credit assessment, including searching files of a Credit Reference Agency, which will keep a record whether or not credit is granted. In addition, transactional information relating to the conduct of the Agreement if granted will be disclosed periodically to the Credit Reference Agencies for the purpose of making future credit decisions, fraud prevention or tracing debtors.

Links and association

For the purposes of this application you may be treated as financially linked and your application will be assessed with reference to any “associated” records. An “association” between joint applicants and/or any individual identified as your financial partner will be created at credit reference agencies which will link your financial records. You and anyone else with whom you have a financial link understand that each other’s information will be taken into account in all future applications by either or both of you. This linking will continue until one of you successfully files a “disassociation” at the credit reference agencies. Information held about you by the credit reference agencies may already be linked to records relating to one or more of your partners.

Other sharing of information

We may also share your information with our agents and service providers who provide a service to us and you;

We will not pass your information to anyone outside Growth Greater Bank other than for the purposes described above, unless:

• we have to give the information by law;
• there is a duty to the public to make the information known;
• our interests mean we must give the information (for example, to prevent fraud); or
• we have your permission.

Lending decisions

Where a lending decision is involved, the information will aid us in assessing the extent of the credit we may be prepared to offer to you.  Credit scoring (an automated method for assisting with decision making) may be used for credit assessment. We will inform you in writing if your application is declined.

Keeping you informed

If you have given your permission either below or separately, we may occasionally want to tell you about Growth Greater Bank's other products and services which may be of interest.  If you have agreed, this could be by letter, phone (including text messages) or email.

Your rights

• You have a right to receive a copy of the information we hold about you if you apply in writing.  You may need to pay a fee. 
• You have a right to stop us contacting you for direct marketing purposes.  You may contact us at any time in the future if you want us to stop.  However, choosing not to receive marketing information from us will mean that you will not receive details about any of our special offers and promotions.
• You have a right to receive details of the fraud prevention agencies and credit reference agencies we get information from and record information about you. Please request this information by writing to us at our Head Office, , , .
• If you have any questions about how we use your personal information, please write to us or phone us or, contact a branch.