How we use your personal information

We will share information about you with other organisations, in order to provide the Private bank account to you and to manage your account properly.
 

These organisations are:

• other companies (including within Investec Group) who help carry out some of the processes needed to provide the Private bank account, or who may assist us in recovering amounts you owe us. This may involve us transferring your information overseas, for example to South Africa. We are responsible for what those companies do with your information, and we will make sure they apply the same level of protection to your information as we do
• fraud prevention and credit reference agencies. We explain this in more detail below
• any organisations who may from time to time provide benefits in connection with the account. These organisations will tell you separately how they will use your information.

When you apply, we will ask you questions about your financial circumstances. We can also look at records we hold about you, or that other companies in Investec Group hold about you.

In addition, we will look at records held with credit reference agencies (CRAs). CRAs can give us both public information (e.g. electoral register) and shared credit and fraud prevention information.

If you are self-employed, we will ask CRAs to give us information they hold concerning your business, company or business partners. This information may include details of applications by your business, company or business partners for credit, and how they run their business or any personal accounts. Because of this, you must make sure that you have the agreement of your company or business partners to disclose information about them.

When CRAs receive a search from us, they will place a search footprint on your credit file and this can be seen by other lenders.

To help us manage our business responsibly, we may periodically ask you for updated information concerning your financial circumstances, and we will also obtain periodic information from CRAs. If you ask to borrow money from us or to increase your borrowing, we may carry out a new search with CRAs which will leave a footprint on your credit file.

If you are joint applicants, or if you tell us that you have a spouse, partner or other person you are financially associated with (an associate), we will link your records with your associate’s records. This means that you must be sure that you have your associate’s agreement to disclose their information to us. CRAs also link records together and these links will remain on your and your associate’s files until one of you successfully files a “notice of disassociation” with the CRAs, ending your link.

We will send information about applications to CRAs and they will record this, even if your application does not proceed or is unsuccessful. If your application is successful, we will share information with CRAs about your account and how you are managing it. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, CRAs will record the outstanding debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and FPAs to perform similar checks and to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. Records remain on file for 6 years after they are closed, whether you have settled the debt or have defaulted on paying it. These records may affect your ability to obtain further credit.

If you give us false or inaccurate information and fraud is identified, we will pass details to fraud prevention agencies (FPAs).

Law enforcement agencies can also access and use this information.

We and other organisations can access and use 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
• checking details of job applicants and employees

We and other organisations can access and use information recorded by FPAs in other countries.

Please contact us at Investec Bank plc, The Banking Team, 30 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7QP if you want to receive details of the relevant fraud prevention agencies.