Data Protection Notice

We may collect your personal data in a number of ways, including from: 

• you for example, when you:
  • apply for and use our products and services;
  • call us, we will monitor and/or record your telephone calls;
  • enter into any agreement with us;
  • contact and interact with us;
  • ask us to contact you;
  • attend events, participate in surveys, prize draws or competitions;

• someone else for example, if a person applies for a joint account with you they may share your personal data with us or if you are a stakeholder in or manager of a business, and the business applies for products or services or enters into an agreement or interacts with us, we may obtain personal data about you to carry out checks against the business;
• third parties such as credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies, financial advisors, introducers, research and data analysis partners;
• public sources - for example, commerce registers.

You are in general under no obligation to provide us with personal data. However, if you do not provide the required information regarding certain use cases set out in this Data Protection Notice, we may not be able to process your corresponding request, get in contact with you or provide the services or product to you.

Types of information we may collect includes:

You must make sure that if you give us personal data about someone else, you should have a lawful basis for doing so, for example, you have their consent to share personal data with us. Where applicable, you should ensure they read this Data Protection Notice and understand how we will use and disclose their information, in the ways described in this Data Protection Notice.

Purpose of processing

We may process various categories of personal data, depending on the circumstances as set out hereinafter. To the extent required under the FADP, our processing is generally based on the following purposes:

• Client onboarding:
  • to verify your identity and assess your application;
  • to verify the accuracy of the data you have provided to us;
  • to perform our contract with you or to process your request for a contract;
  • to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject (e.g. in order to perform legal and regulatory compliance checks and comply with statutory requirements, anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regulations, directives and recommendations from authorities).
• Client relationship management:
  • to manage our relationship with you, including communicating with you in relation to the products and services you obtain from us and from our business partners, handling customer service-related queries and complaints, facilitating debt recovery activities, making decisions regarding credit or your identity, tracing your whereabouts, and closing your account (in accordance with applicable law) if it remains dormant and we are unable to contact you after a period of time;
  • to help us learn more about you as a client, your preferences on the products and services you receive, and other products and services;
  • to make credit decisions (where applicable).
• Product implementation and execution:
  • to provide products and services to you and ensure their proper execution, for instance by ensuring that we can identify you and make payments to and from your accounts in accordance with your instructions and the product terms;
  • to manage your accounts;
  • to provide IT solutions to you and ensure their proper execution in accordance with your instructions and our contractual arrangements with you.
• Compliance and risk management:
  • to carry out legal and regulatory compliance checks in particular as part of the onboarding process and periodic compliance checks, including to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, fraud prevention and financial crime prevention sanctions country screening;
  • to meet our on-going regulatory and compliance obligations (e.g., laws of the financial sector, anti-money laundering and tax laws);
  • to receive and handle complaints, requests or reports from you or third parties;
  • to reply to any actual or potential proceedings, requests or inquiries of a public or judicial authority

• To conduct analysis and market research, for example, to identify trends in the use of our products and services so that we can:
  • improve the products and services we provide to you 
  • improve our business
  • conduct internal marketing analytics
  • administer surveys, prize draws or competitions
  • manage events
  • keep you up to date with relevant products and services.
• To support research and analytics that assist us in marketing our products and services.

Investec processes your personal data within the applicable legal framework. Depending on the above purposes of the processing activity, the basis for the processing of your personal data will be one of the following:

• necessary for taking steps to enter into or executing a contract with you for the services or products you request, or for carrying out our obligations under such a contract;
• required to meet our legal or regulatory responsibilities, including when we conduct the legal and regulatory compliance checks and make the disclosures to authorities, regulators and government bodies;
• as a result of your consent (for instance where required by law), such consent must be explicit in the case of special categories of personal data. The consent given can be revoked. Revocation will be effective for the future from the point of revocation. Processing carried out prior to the revocation will therefore not be affected;
• necessary for the legitimate interests of Investec in fulfilling the purposes mentioned above (e.g. for security and access control purposes, to manage support services, as well as to comply with internal regulations, including such purposes as compliance, risk management, corporate governance and business organization);
• in some cases, necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

We may disclose certain personal data as follows:

• to other affiliates in the Investec Group. Investec Group consists of Investec Bank plc (a company registered in the UK) and Investec Limited (a company registered in South Africa) and any of their direct or indirect subsidiaries and/or holding companies;
• to our professional advisors, receivers and administrators (where applicable), and service providers (including for example, information technology systems providers) who may help us provide products or services;
• to courts, governmental and non-governmental agencies, regulators and ombudsmen;
• law enforcement agencies;
• relevant tax authorities;
• to any relevant third party in the course of an acquisition, sale, transfer, reorganisation or merger of parts of our business or our assets;
• as required or permitted by law or regulation, where we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Investec Group, our clients, or others;
• where you have been introduced to us by an introducer (e.g. an independent financial adviser), unless you have told us not to, we will inform the introducer of the outcome of the enquiry including whether we have agreed to provide you with the relevant product or service;
• to credit card associations, and other card payment and platform providers;
• to issuers of securities (including third parties appointed by them) in which you have an interest;
• to payment recipients, beneficiaries, account nominees, intermediaries, correspondent and agent banks (including custodian banks);
• to clearing houses, and clearing or settlement systems and specialised payment companies or institutions such as SWIFT;
• to market counterparties, upstream withholding agents, swap or trade repositories, stock exchanges;
• to any third-party fund manager who provides asset management services to you;
• to any introducing broker to whom we provide introductions or referrals;
• to credit reference agencies (as applicable); and
• to fraud prevention agencies (as applicable).

You may also ask us for details of the credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies we have used for your searches. If there are any errors in the information we hold about you, please tell us so we can correct the information we hold about you.

We may transfer your personal data to recipients who may carry out services on our behalf located in the different countries in which the Investec Group operates (list accessible via the Bank's website here), countries in the European Economic Area, as well as other countries where third parties listed in this Data Protection Notice are located or where Investec executes transactions or provides services, provided that (a) such countries provide for an adequate level of data protection according to the assessment of the competent authority, (b) we ensure an adequate level of data protection based on appropriate safeguards, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses ("EU-SCC") adapted to Swiss law to the extent required ("CH-SCC"), or (c) you have given your consent regarding such cross-border transfer.

You have the right to:

• request access to your data and information and about how it is being used;
• request rectification or erasure of your personal data;
• request restriction of processing or to object to processing of your personal data; and
• request data portability (i.e. to request the transfer of personal data from one data controller to another).

If you wish to exercise any of these rights or withdraw consent to use your personal data you should contact the Data Protection Officer as described below in order for us to rectify the issue. If you are not satisfied with our response you have the right to lodge a complaint about the processing of your personal data with the data protection supervisory authority in your local jurisdiction.

We may contact you periodically to provide information regarding events, products, services and content that may be of interest to you and to invite you to participate in market research. If applicable law requires that we receive your consent before we send you certain types of marketing communications, we will only send you those types of communications after receiving your consent. Where this information is provided electronically we may track your response, for example which emails you open.

If you wish to stop receiving marketing or market research communications from Investec Bank (Switzerland) AG you can click on the unsubscribe link in the marketing communication or contact the Data Protection Officer as described below.

We will take steps to protect your personal data against loss or theft, as well as from unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, regardless of the format in which it is held.

We only process and store your personal data for as long as is necessary for the fulfillment of our contractual and legal obligations. In this context, it should be noted that our business relationship is a continuing obligation that spans years. If the data is no longer required for the fulfillment of contractual or legal obligations, it is regularly deleted unless limited continued processing is necessary for the following purposes:

• Fulfillment of obligations to preserve records according to commercial and tax law. This includes, in particular, the Swiss Code of Obligations, the Federal Act on Value- Added Tax, the Direct Federal Taxation Act, the Federal Act on the Harmonization of Direct Cantonal Taxation and Direct Community Taxation, the Federal Stamp Tax Act, and the Federal Withholding Tax Act;
• We may also face legal holds that require us to keep records for an undefined period of time.

Please contact the Data Protection Officer using the details below for further information regarding data retention periods.

We may revise or supplement our Data Protection Notice from time to time to reflect for example, any changes in our business, law, markets, or the introduction of any new technology. We will publish the updated Data Protection Notice on this website.

The data protection authority for Investec Bank (Switzerland) AG is the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), Feldeggweg 1, 3003 Berne, Switzerland (https://www.edoeb.admin.ch). Based on your residence, you may have the possibility to lodge a complaint with the appropriate data protection authority of your place of residence. 

All enquiries, requests or concerns regarding this Data Protection Notice or relating to the processing of personal data, should be sent to the Data Protection Officer using the following contact details:

data.protection@investecbank.ch

Data Protection Officer

Investec Bank (Switzerland) AG

Loewenstrasse 29

8001 Zurich

Switzerland