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Our Simplified Privacy Statement

Our privacy statement combines important information about how we handle your personal and credit-related information. We’ve simplified the language to make it easier to understand how and why we collect, hold, and use this information, and who we share it with and why.​

Sometimes, we need to provide you with a supplementary privacy notice to give you additional information specific to a particular collection of your information. If one of our supplementary privacy notices is relevant to you, we will provide the notice to you at the time we are collecting your information or shortly after. You can also access and download our supplementary privacy notices.

We’re also progressively updating our websites and apps (such as online banking), product and service terms and conditions, forms, and other documents with the simplified privacy information. ​

St.George Privacy Statement

Protecting your privacy is fundamental to the way we do business. We are committed to earning and maintaining your trust by carefully and respectfully managing your personal information and credit-related information.

Download a copy of our full Privacy Statement (PDF 819KB) or contact us for a free printed copy.

This Privacy Statement provides important information about how we collect and handle your personal information, including the purposes for which we collect and use your information and the types of organisations we share it with (some of which are located outside of Australia). It also explains how you can access and correct the personal information we hold about you, and how you can make a complaint about our handling of your personal information. 

 

Why are we collecting your personal information?

Westpac Banking Corporation and its Australian related body corporates (the Westpac Group, we, us, our) collect your personal information to provide products and services and to provide you with assistance and support. Some Australian members of the Westpac Group may also collect your credit-related information for the same purposes.

We may collect or generate information based on your transactions, preferences and behaviours (including through use of our website and apps) so that we can tailor our digital content and products and services to you. For more information, see section 4.


With whom do we share your personal information?

We may share your personal information with members of the Westpac Group (including members of our group outside Australia), our Business Partners (as defined in Section 8), and all of them may share your personal information with us. 


We use your personal information to send you offers

We will (and our RAMS franchisees may) use your personal information to send you offers for products and services we believe may be of interest and value to you (including by email, SMS or other means) unless you have previously told us that you do not want to receive marketing offers from us. The products and services offered may be provided by us or by one of our third-party partners. If you do not want to receive direct marketing offers from us, you can manage your marketing preferences in your online banking profile, contact us using the contact details set out below or follow the opt-out instructions in the message. For more information, see section 9. If you do not want to receive direct marketing offers from RAMS franchisees, you should contact them directly or follow the opt-out instructions in their message. 


If you are applying for, or providing a guarantee, for a credit product

If you apply for a credit product, such as a credit card or mortgage, or provide a guarantee for a credit product, we will also collect your credit-related information to assess (or have another member of the Westpac Group as the credit provider assess) your application for credit, and to manage the credit product. We (that is, the Westpac Group entity that is the credit provider for the credit product you applied for or in relation to any guarantee for such) will also share your information with credit reporting bodies. You should be aware of the following:

  • Credit reporting bodies may include your personal information and credit-related information in reports that they provide to other credit providers to assist us and other providers in assessing your credit worthiness (such as when you have applied for a loan from the provider).
  • If you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to consumer credit, or enter a financial hardship arrangement in relation to credit to which the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) applies, we are required to disclose this to credit reporting bodies.  If you commit a serious credit infringement, such as obtaining credit by fraud, we may also disclose this to a credit reporting body.
  • Credit reporting bodies offer a service to credit providers wishing to send direct marketing material about credit services to individuals. This is called “credit pre-screening”. You have a right to request credit reporting bodies not to use your credit reporting information to pre-screen you for direct marketing purposes.
  • You can request the credit reporting body not to use or disclose credit reporting information about you if you reasonably believe that you have been, or are likely to be, a victim of fraud.
  • For contact details and information about how those credit reporting bodies manage credit-related information, please see their privacy policies and contact details available on their websites linked below.
  • The credit reporting bodies we use are:


Further information

For more information on how you can access and correct the personal information we hold about you (including credit-related information), make a complaint, or the circumstances in which we share information to entities outside of Australia, please see the relevant sections below.


You do not have to provide us with your personal information or credit-related information

If you choose not to, we may not be able to process your application for a product or service, assist with your enquiries, provide all of the features available for a product or service, or respond to any complaint to us


If you are providing us with personal information about someone else

You must first make them aware that you’ll be doing this, the contents of this Privacy Statement, and that we will collect and handle their personal information in accordance with this Statement and any other relevant Privacy Notices. If you are providing us with another person’s sensitive information, you must first obtain their consent to sharing it with us and their consent to us collecting and handling their sensitive information in accordance with this Privacy Statement and any other relevant Privacy Notices.  

Providing us with personal information about someone else includes, for example, where you are providing an individual with access (or link) to a product or service of ours where their personal information is ultimately collected by us as part of using that product or service.


Where you engage with us in relation to a business, corporate or institutional customer

Where you engage with us in relation to products and services for our business, corporate or institutional customers (for example as a representative, director, corporate officer, signatory, beneficiary or shareholder of one of our customers) this Privacy Statement will be relevant to you where we collect and handle your personal information. For example, where we collect your personal information to verify your identity or collect your signature as a signatory on a corporate account.


Business Partners

In this Privacy Statement we refer to ‘Business Partners’. This term describes the associated entities, service providers and agents that help us run our business. It also includes authorised representatives and credit representatives (including RAMS franchisees) as well as our institutional and business customers who may provide you with use of our products or services, for example, online transaction services to make payments. 

Important information about our collection of your information

For most products and services

We collect and hold your personal information (including your credit-related information) to help us run our business and serve you better, including to:

 
Purpose Examples of why we collect and hold your personal information
Provide our products and services and serve you as a customer or individuals using our products or services
  • provide you with and manage the products, services and programs you have with us directly or with the support of our Business Partners
  • provide and manage products, services and programs to our business, corporate and institutional customers and the use of the products and services by their customers
  • answer your questions and resolve your complaints
  • assist you when an online application is not completed
  • assess your application (including eligibility) for a product or service or to participate in any of our programs or initiatives
  • support vulnerable customers in the management of their product or service
  • understand your interests and preferences so we can tailor our digital content and products and services for you.

Where you agree or we are permitted by law, we may collect sensitive information about you to:

  • Offer you specialist Indigenous and remote banking services, and
  • Provide extra care if you are a vulnerable customer.
Security, verification and prevention of fraud/criminal activity 
  • Verify your identity
  • Verify aspects of your financial situation in connection with assessing your application or an application of a business or corporate customer
  • Prevent, detect and investigate suspicious, fraudulent, criminal or other activity that may cause you, us, any of our Business Partners, or others harm, including in relation to our products and services.
Legal and regulatory compliance
  • Comply with our legislative and regulatory requirements (both in Australia and overseas)
  • Share information with law enforcement, regulators and government agencies, including foreign government agencies.
Insurance

Where we arrange for you to apply for insurance with a third party insurer we have a distribution or referral agreement with:

  • Assess your application
  • Calculate your premium
  • Administer your cover.

 

For credit products

If you apply for a credit product, obtain a credit product from us, are offering to act as a guarantor or acting as guarantor in relation to credit, we also collect and hold your personal information for the following purposes: 

 

 
Purpose Examples of why we collect and hold your personal information
To help you obtain credit 
  • Assess your application and establish your eligibility for credit
  • Enable a proposed guarantor to assess whether they wish to act as your guarantor
  • Obtain credit eligibility information about you from a credit reporting body to enable us to assess your creditworthiness (please see Credit reporting and credit-related information section below)
  • If you are a proposed guarantor, to determine whether the borrower will be eligible for a loan if you act as a guarantor, take the guarantee and administer that guarantee
  • Where you agree or where we are permitted by law, we may collect sensitive information about you to meet our responsible lending obligations. 
To manage your credit product
  • Enable you to give a guarantee
  • Assist you in avoiding default
  • Manage your credit when you exceed your credit limit or are overdue in making one or more payments
  • Where you agree or where we are permitted by law, we may collect sensitive information about you to assess any hardship application that you make, or to meet our responsible lending obligations.
Lenders mortgage insurance (not applicable to guarantors) To enable us to obtain lenders mortgage insurance which protects the lender if a borrower is unable to meet their mortgage repayments. 
To manage our loan funding arrangements 

Implement and manage our loan funding arrangements, including for example, through the practice of securitisation which is used by us for funding, capital, and credit portfolio management. 

To determine your eligibility to act as guarantor Assess your application to act as guarantor in connection with another person's application for credit under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth)

 

Statement of Notifiable Matters: Our handling of your credit-related information

Our handling of credit-related information is regulated by the Privacy Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code (as updated from time to time). Because credit-related information is a type of personal information, this section should be read along with the rest of this Privacy Statement for detailed information about our collection, use, storage and sharing of personal information. See section [3] for further information on members of the Westpac Group who handle your credit information. 

Credit-related information includes both credit information and credit eligibility information.

  • Credit information is personal information that may have a bearing on credit that has been provided to you or that you have applied for, including credit for personal, investment or business purposes.  
  • Credit eligibility information is information related primarily to your credit-related dealings with other credit providers and comprises of credit reporting information disclosed by a credit reporting body to us, and information we derive from that information. 


Credit-related information we collect, hold and use

The types of credit-related information we may collect, hold and use includes:

  • Identification information, including your name, gender, date of birth, residential addresses, Driver Licence number and current and past employers
  • Consumer credit liability information, which includes details about consumer loans, credit cards and overdraft facilities, the dates on which they were opened and closed and their credit limits
  • Repayment history information, which includes details as to whether or not you have met your monthly repayment requirements under a consumer credit contract
  • Financial hardship information, being information relevant in determining your repayment history information under a consumer credit contract to which the National Credit Code applies when you are in a financial hardship arrangement
  • A statement that an information request has been made to a credit reporting body in relation to you by us or another credit provider, a mortgage insurer or trade insurer
  • The type of credit you are applying for (or have applied for), and the amount of credit, included in an information request a credit provider has made to a credit reporting body
  • Default information or information regarding any other serious credit infringements, and our opinion about any such infringements
  • New arrangement information, which is when default information has been supplied to a credit reporting body and your consumer credit contract relating to that default information is subsequently varied or replaced
  • Payment information, which is when default information has been supplied to a credit reporting body and the overdue amount is paid
  • Information from a judgment of an Australian court that relates to any credit that has been provided to you
  • Personal insolvency information, meaning information entered or recorded in the National Personal Insolvency Index that relates to your debts, insolvency or credit worthiness
  • Publicly available information that relates to your creditworthiness (e.g. court judgments, bankruptcy notices)
  • Credit eligibility information we receive from a credit reporting body and other information that has a bearing on your credit worthiness, such as a credit report
  • Any information we derive from credit eligibility information, for example, our own assessments of your credit worthiness. 


How and why we use and share your credit-related information

If you apply for any kind of credit with us or offer to act as guarantor for any of our customers, we will share your personal information and your credit-related information with credit reporting bodies, and/or we will collect your credit-related information from credit reporting bodies. This is done for the purpose of determining your eligibility for credit (or your suitability to act as guarantor), and we may assess or rate your suitability for credit (or to act as a guarantor).

The information we access includes your repayment history information, which shows whether you have a history of making required payments on time (and whether any have been made after they are due), and financial hardship information.

Credit reporting bodies may include your personal information and credit-related information, including information we provide them in relation to the credit products you have with us, in reports that they provide to other credit providers to assist those providers in assessing your credit worthiness (such as when you have applied for a loan from the provider).

If you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to consumer credit, or enter a financial hardship arrangement in relation to credit to which the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) applies, we are required to disclose this to credit reporting bodies. If you commit a serious credit infringement, such as obtaining credit by fraud, we may also disclose this to a credit reporting body.

We may also use your credit-related information to assist you during hardship, or to assess whether to securitise your loans, or for mortgage products to enable a provider of lenders mortgage insurance to assess the risk of providing insurance. To facilitate these uses, we may share your credit-related information with potential securitisation and funding partners and providers of lenders mortgage insurance, including to assist them with administering those arrangements.

For more information on how we use and share your credit-related information, and who we may share this information with, see sections 8 and 20. 


Contacting the credit reporting bodies we use

The credit reporting bodies we use, and their contact details appear below. For information on how those bodies manage credit-related information, please see their privacy policies available on their websites.

Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Limited

13 83 32

www.equifax.com.au

Illion Data Registries Pty Limited

13 23 33

www.illion.com.au

Experian Australia Credit Services Pty Limited

1300 783 684

www.experian.com.au

 

Opting-out from credit reporting bodies’ direct marketing (or pre-screening)

Credit reporting bodies offer a service to credit providers (like us) who wish to send direct marketing material about their credit services to individuals. This is called credit pre-screening. You have the right to request that the credit reporting bodies do not use your credit-related information for this purpose. To opt-out of credit pre-screening, contact the credit reporting body using the contact details noted above.


Contacting credit reporting bodies if you think you have been a victim of fraud

You can also ask a credit reporting body not to use or share your personal information (including credit- related information) for a period if you reasonably believe that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud, including identity theft.

Particular circumstances that may apply to you

This section applies (in addition to the rest of this Privacy Statement) if we ask for, or collect, your tax file number (TFN). Please see the "Accessing and correcting your personal information" and "Resolving your privacy complaints and concerns" sections below to find out how to access your TFN, correct your details, or complain about our handling of your TFN or other personal information. 


Why we collect your TFN

We are authorised to collect the TFNs of:

  • Account holders, where the account you open earns interest, and investors under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
  • Superannuation fund members, under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993.

We only collect your TFN for purposes required or authorised by law, including for the purpose of reporting information to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). If you are a superannuation fund member and you provide your permission for us to do so, we may also use your TFN to search for funds held by you with other superannuation or retirement savings providers for the purpose of consolidating your super.


You are not required to provide us with your TFN

It is not an offence to withhold your TFN. However, if you choose not to provide your TFN when you open an account with us:

  • We may be required by law to deduct tax at the highest marginal tax rate plus the Medicare Levy from interest earned on your account
  • If the account you are opening is for a child under 16 and the interest earned on the account is likely to be $420 or more per year pro-rata, interest earned on the account will be subject to withholding tax
  • If the account you are opening is for a child aged 16 or 17 and the interest earned on the account is likely to be $120 or more, interest earned on the account will be subject to withholding tax and the child will need to lodge a tax return if they want a refund

unless you are exempt from providing a TFN. If you are exempt, please let us know the type of exemption that applies so that we do not deduct tax from the interest earned on the account.

For joint account holders or investors, a minimum of two TFNs should be provided (one for each person) if you decide to provide your TFN.

For accounts in trust for someone else (such as your child) you should quote your own TFN. If a formal trust has been established, you can quote the trust's TFN.

If your investment with us is made in the course of carrying on a business you may provide us with an ABN instead of a TFN.

If you are a superannuation fund member you can ask us in writing not to record your TFN. However, providing your TFN gives you the following advantages, which may not apply to you if you choose to withhold your TFN:

  • We'll be able to accept all types of contributions to your account
  • The tax on contributions to your account will not be higher than the concessional tax rate
  • Other than the tax that may ordinarily apply, no additional tax will be deducted when you start drawing down your super benefits
  • It will be easier to trace different super accounts in your name so that you receive all your super benefits when you retire.


Who we share your TFN with

We are required to report details of interest or dividend income earned, withholding tax deducted and TFNs and exemptions recorded in connection with the accounts and investments you hold with us to the ATO.

In addition, if you are a superannuation fund member and you provide your TFN, we may provide your TFN to another super plan or retirement savings provider if your benefits are transferred, unless you request in writing that your TFN not be disclosed to anyone else.

Otherwise, your TFN will be kept confidential and only shared where permitted by law.

Further information about our handling of your personal information

The personal information (including sensitive information and credit-related information) that we collect and hold about you will depend on the products and services we offer you and the nature of your interactions with the Westpac Group.

In the table below we list some examples of the personal information we collect and hold about you:

For most products and services

Type of personal information Examples of what this may include

Personal and contact details

Your name, date of birth, gender, signature, mailing and residential address details, telephone numbers, email addresses, and personal details relevant to any application for credit such as marital status, number and ages of dependants, citizenship and/or residency details, foreign tax residency status, employment details and status, salary details, work history and bank account and credit card information.
Government issued identification (copies) and identifiers Your Medicare number, passport details, driver’s licence number, director identification number, and copies of government identification documents.  
Photographs, video or audio recordings Call recordings when you contact our call centres or branches, and security camera recordings when you visit our branches or offices or use our ATMs.

Sensitive information

Information rrelating to your citizenship, residency status and biometric data (to verify your identity and authorise transactions, for example if you enrol in our Smart Verify or Verify-Ewe service). In addition, we may collect sensitive information about your health, medical history, racial or ethnic origin in the limited circumstances described above under Why we collect your personal information (for example, to offer you specialist Indigenous and remote banking capabilities). 
Transactional information

Records of transactions you make using our products and services.

Interaction and behavioural information

  • Your interactions with us, including your queries or complaints
  • Pages viewed and browsing behaviour on our websites and applications.
  • How you navigate through our websites and interact with our webpages, including fields completed in forms and applications.
Digital (or electronic information)

The date and time of your visits to our webpages, geographical information, information about the device used to visit our website (including your tablet or mobile device) such as device IDs and IP addresses, the date and time of accessing online banking and other digital services, and geolocation where you provide permission in your device settings.

We may also collect information from third party websites, applications or platforms containing our interactive content or that interface with our own websites and applications.

Publicly available information

Searches of ASIC's banned and disqualified persons register, ASIC's insolvency register, bankruptcy register and State or Territory Land Registry Services or real property registers.

We may collect information about you from Westpac pages on social media platforms if you publicly comment but we will never ask you to supply personal information over any social media platform on which we have a presence and use, such as Facebook, WeChat or X.

 

For credit products

If you have applied for a credit product, obtain a credit product from us, are offering to act as a guarantor or act as a guarantor for a credit product, we may also collect and hold the following personal information about you: 

Type of personal information Examples of what this may include

Credit information

 

See a definition of Credit information under Credit reporting and credit-related Information [Section 10].
Credit eligibility information See a definition of Credit eligibility information under Credit reporting and credit-related Information [Section 10].
Loan application information

Information about your assets, debts, income and expenditure.

Guarantor information If you are a proposed guarantor for any of our products, we will collect your personal information from the prospective borrower(s). With your consent, we will also collect your credit-related information in accordance with this Privacy Statement. 
Sensitive information We may collect additional sensitive information about your health, medical history, racial or ethnic origin in limited circumstances described above under Why we collect your personal information.

Comprehensive Credit Reporting

Comprehensive credit reporting (CCR) in Australia now means your credit report contains more information, such as account open and close dates, types of credit, credit limits and up to 24 months of repayment history information. 

Learn more about CCR

Overseas Privacy and Data Protection Policies

At St.George we are committed to protecting your Privacy, no matter where you live.

Learn more about Overseas Privacy and Data Protection Policies

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