Privacy Policy
FIRM
CAPITAL CORPORATION
FIRM CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST
and affiliated
companies (the FCC Group)
This
policy explains the type of personal information we collect, how it is used and
the steps we take to ensure that your personal information is handled
appropriately.
FIRM CAPITAL
CORPORATION, FIRM CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST, FC TREASURY MANAGEMENT
INC., and their affiliates and subsidiaries ( hereinafter the “FCC Group”) have
developed their privacy policy as outlined below to comply with the federal
Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and adopting
the ten principles outlined in the Model Code for the Protection of Personal
Information. In this policy “we”, “our”, and
“us”
mean collectively the FCC Group including Firm Capital Mortgage Investment
Trust, Firm Capital Corporation, FC Treasury Management Inc. and their
subsidiaries and affiliates. Terms such as “you” and
“your”
mean an individual who has made an application to us, or provided a guarantee
for any product or service provided by us.
WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Personal
information is any information that is specific to you as an individual
including such details as your residential address, date of birth, age, marital
status, education, employment history, identification numbers, financial
information and credit records. It does not include business contact information
that would typically appear on a business card or that is available in public
records such as public telephone directory information and professional and
business directories available to the public.
THE TEN PRINCIPLES
1.
Accountability
Keeping your personal information confidential is part of the
responsibility of every employee at the FCC GROUP and we are accountable for all
personal information in our custody including personal information that we
disclose to third parties for processing, storage, or other administrative
functions. Employees and our suppliers are informed about, and must comply with,
the policies and procedures that we have established regarding the collection,
use and storage of your information. We have a designated Privacy Officer who is
responsible for monitoring and supervision of the FCC Group’s compliance with
this policy and PIPEDA.
2. Why We
Collect and How We Use and Share Your Information
The
FCC GROUP will identify and document the purposes for which it collects the
personal information, before or at the time of collection. In most situations
where you are asked to provide personal information, it will be readily obvious
to you why we are collecting such information and how we will use it.
For
example if you have decided to invest with us, we will collect via the
subscription process, your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address,
banking information and social insurance number primarily for the purposes of
being able to communicate with you, to be able to remit distributions to you,
and to prepare income tax and other reporting required by law.
If
you have come to us for financing, we will collect via the loan approval
process, your name, address, telephone number, and at times your personal
financial information to be able to communicate with you and for the purposes of
determining your creditworthiness and to assist in future enforcement and
collection of the loan.
If
you have come to us to rent a property that is managed or controlled by us we
will collect via the rental application process, your name, address, telephone
number and your personal financial information for the purpose of being able to
communicate with you and for the purposes of determining your creditworthiness
and to enable us to enforce the lease and collect rents.
We
may collect from, and use and disclose personal information to, any person or
organization for the following purposes:
- To verify your
identity and protect you and us from error and fraud;
- To understand your
financing requirements;
- To determine your
creditworthiness, ability to pay, and security available and thus your
eligibility for a loan;
- To set up and
manage automatic payments;
- To comply with
legal, regulatory and contractual requirements;
We
may use third party service providers to assist us with various services such as
legal services, accounting and audit, title insurance, mortgage default
insurance, mortgage administration, printing, collection of accounts, mail
distribution and marketing and we may release information about you to them.
When your personal information is provided to our service providers we will,
where they do not have their own privacy policy in effect, or are not governed
by a professional code with respect to privacy and confidentiality, require them
to protect the information in a manner consistent with our privacy policy.
We
may collect, use and disclose your Social Insurance Number (“SIN”) for income tax
reporting purposes but also to verify and report credit information to credit
reporting agencies and to verify your identity. Your SIN may be used keep your
personal information separate from that of other clients with similar names. You
may refuse to consent to its use and disclosure for purposes other than required
by law.
If we
sell or assign your mortgage or loan, or securitize it, sell parts of our
business, or merge or amalgamate with other entities we may release the
information we hold about you to the prospective purchaser or assignee as part
of due diligence and on completion of the transaction.
When
you apply, as a borrower or guarantor, for a loan we may exchange information
about you with credit bureaus for the purpose of establishing your
creditworthiness and maintaining the reliability of the credit reporting system.
If you use a mortgage broker or other third party to assist you in your credit
application we may obtain and exchange information with them in order to
determine your eligibility for credit.
We
may verify relevant information you give us with your employer or your
references and you authorize any person whom we contact in this regard to
provide such information to us.
We
may monitor or record any telephone call we have with you. We will retain the
content of the call. This is to maintain an accurate record of the information
you provide and to ensure that our service levels are maintained.
3.
Obtaining Your Consent to Collect, Use or Disclose Your Personal Information
With
certain exceptions as outlined below, we will obtain your consent to collect,
use or disclose personal information. This consent will allow us to check your
employment, obtain a credit report and exchange information with credit
reporting agencies, offer you other products and service, and share your
information with our affiliates including Firm Capital Corporation. Your consent
may be given in writing, verbally or by electronic means. We may rely upon
implied consent where permitted by law including where the following situations
occur:
- Where a customer
relationship already exists;
- Where express
consent has been previously been given for the same or similar use of the
personal information;
- Where the intended
use is reasonably obvious from the context in which it is obtained and you
provide the information voluntarily;
The
following are exceptions where we may collect, use or disclose information
without consent and for which you may not withdraw consent:
- If we use an
outside supplier to do work for us as outlined above;
- If we are required
or permitted by law. We may be compelled to release information by a court or
other legal or regulatory authority.
- To protect our
interests, such as collecting overdue payments, realizing on security pledged
for a loan, or to detect or prevent fraud,
- To periodically
update your information with credit reporting agencies as long as you have a
loan with us and for a period of time following payment, in order to maintain
the integrity of the credit reporting system;
- Where we need to
exchange or disclose customer information to sell or securitize your mortgage
or loan, or as part of the sale or merger of our business;
Where
you are permitted to withdraw your consent, and you do withdraw your consent,
for example you choose not to receive direct marketing, we will do our best to
make sure that our files are updated as quickly as possible. You must give us
reasonable notice of your withdrawal of consent in writing.
4. Limits
on Collection of Personal Information
The
FCC GROUP limits the amount and type of personal information to what is
necessary for the purposes we have identified. We will obtain personal
information only by fair and lawful means and not by misleading or deceiving you
about the purposes for which information consent to collection is sought.
5. We
Limit Use, Disclosure, and Retention of Your Personal Information
We
will use or disclose your personal information only for the reasons it was
collected, as described in this code. Disclosure means providing specific
information about you from our records to a third party. When you apply for
credit from the FCC GROUP, such application forms expressed consent for use, and
disclosure pursuant to the terms outlined both on the application and in this
code. If a new purpose is developed in the future we will notify you and request
your consent for use of your information for this new purpose.
We
will keep personal information as long as necessary for the purposes identified
in this code, which will be at least as long as any balance remains outstanding
on any credit provided to you, and thereafter during any period after settlement
of all balances during which any readjustment or claim is not statute
barred.
6.
Accuracy
We
will make every effort to ensure the information in our records is correct and
up to date. We also rely on you to tell us when your personal information
changes.
7.
Security of Your Personal Information
The
security of your personal information involves both physical, organizational and
electronic methods. We only contract with key suppliers that have a proven track
record of securely handling personal information and share our policies.
We
restrict physical access to areas where information is collected, stored or
processed to authorized employees and agents only.
We
maintain electronic security measures such as password protection to prevent
unauthorized access to our electronic records of personal information.
When
information is no longer required and is to be destroyed we shred paper
documents that contain personal information and erase or make anonymous any
personal information on any electronic media.
8. Openess
We
attempt to make information about our privacy policies and procedures available
to customers. We will use our best efforts to use simple language that is easy
to understand and to provide specific information regarding how we are
attempting to comply with the Model Code.
Through this policy and other documentation you will be able to
find out:
- The title, office
address, and e-mail of the person at the FCC GROUP who is responsible for
responding to your requests about the privacy of your personal information;
- How to access your
personal information held by the FCC GROUP;
- A description of
the type of personal information held by us and a general account of its use;
9.
Individual Access
When
you request it we will tell you what personal information we have, what it is
being, or may be used for, from whom it was collected and to whom it has been
disclosed. Depending on the nature of the information you are requesting and the
complexity of your request we may ask you to put your request in writing. Some
of the information you request may not be immediately available. If this is the
case we may require that your request be submitted in writing or by e-mail and
will provide such information as soon as reasonably available and generally
within thirty days.
Generally there will be no charge for verifying or correcting your
information. Depending on the circumstances there may be a charge if you want a
copy of records that we have already given you or your request is relatively
complex. We will let you know in advance if there is a charge.
If we
have obtained information about you from other people, you can ask us for the
source of that information. If we obtained a credit report on you, we will
advise you of the agency that provided such report and you may contact them
directly for a current credit report.
We
may not be able to provide you with a copy of appraisals or other materials
obtained by us from third parties subject to copyright, without the
authorization of the author. We will provide you with a summary of the findings
of such third party reports.
On
request, and except where legally prohibited, we will provide you with the names
of outside companies or organizations to whom we’ve given your personal
information. This will not include outside suppliers we used to do work for us
or companies that process information for us. This also won’t include reports to
the Canada Revenue Agency, regular updating of credit information to credit
bureaus, indicating to third parties when cheques are returned NSF, or
information provided to legal counsel for the purpose of collection or
enforcement of security or information that has been provided for legal or
regulatory reasons.
We
will not provide personal information if it:
- The information is
not readily retrievable and the cost of retrieving cannot be justified;
- That includes
personal information about other customers;
- That contains our
own proprietary information, such as a credit scoring formula, assessment of
risk, or collection recommendations;
- Cannot be
disclosed for legal reasons;
- Is subject to
solicitor-client or other privilege;
- Is used for the
detection and prevention of criminal activity, including fraud, and dealings
in proceeds of crime;
We
will give you brief reasons for any refusal to allow access to your personal
information. You may then challenge our decision.
If we
discover that we have information about you that is obsolete or incorrect we
will update our records accordingly. We reserve the right to decline a requested
correction but will append a notation to the records of your requested
alternative information. Whenever possible we will correct any information which
we may have given to an outside organization.
If a
third party such as a credit bureau or reporting agency has given us information
that you tell us is wrong, we will give you the name and address of that party
so that you can contact them to correct the information they maintain.
10.
Complaints about Policy and Compliance
The
FCC GROUP is committed to treating your personal information in accordance with
our privacy policy. If you have any questions or complaints about our Privacy
Policy or how we are living up to the Policy, let us know right away. Your first
step should be to talk to the loans officer or employee with whom you are doing
business. If your complaint or question remains unresolved you should then bring
them to the attention of our Privacy Officer as follows:
Privacy Officer – The FCC Group
1244
Caledonia Road
Toronto, ON
M6A 2X5
Tel: (416) 635-0221
Fax:
(416) 635-1713
e-mail: privacy@firmcapital.com
Should you not accept the conclusion of the FCC GROUP’s Privacy
Officer you may contact:
Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Place de Ville
112
Kent St.,
34d Floor Ottawa, ON
K1A 1H3
Toll free at 1 800 282-1376
www.privcom.gc.ca