Privacy Policy for Loan and Mortgage Agreements

In the context of loan and mortgage agreements, we process the categories of data described below, although this list is not exhaustive.

In the event of changes to data over time (e.g. due to a change of address, a change in civil status or another modification), we may continue to store the previous status of such data in addition to the current status within the framework of the statutory storage periods.

Master data includes, in particular, contact information (e.g. name, address, telephone number and email address), personal details (e.g. date of birth, age, gender, nationality, data from identification documents, occupation, employer), other identification data (e.g. AHV number, customer number, tax identification number) or information about your relationship with us (e.g. partner/customer status, customer history). Account details are also collected, including bank account details (e.g. account numbers) or credit card details.

We receive master data from you or from third parties, for example Group companies, custodian banks, credit agencies or public registers (e.g. the Land Register). We also receive data in connection with address changes, as we are involved in an address update network which sends us and the other companies involved in the network updated address data (e.g. the new address after a move).

This is data that is collected in connection with the conclusion or processing of a contract. Contract data includes data from applications, contracts and information from precontractual relationships, for example information from consultations, information from other existing (third-party) contracts, for example type and date of contract conclusion as well as further information on the relevant contract, portfolios and watch lists, liabilities, income, turnover and investments, documentation on the property to be financed, market value estimate, interest rate, collateral, repayment and fees, term of the contract.

Contract data also includes financial data, i.e. information on assets and their origins as well as budget details (e.g. own funds, savings, pension assets, liabilities and expenditure), information on earned income, pension income and income from investments, your creditworthiness (e.g. scoring, rating and creditworthiness data in the context of lending) and your payment history (i.e. information regarding payment demands and debt collection).

We generally collect contract data directly from you and from third parties involved in the processing of the contract as well as from publicly accessible registers (e.g. Land Register).

This includes data relating to the compliance with legal obligations incumbent on us and the related clarification and reporting in the context of combating fraud, money laundering and terrorism. We obtain such data from publicly available sources and registers (e.g. sanctions lists) or from public authorities (e.g. information on US citizens / double citizens, economic background, beneficial owners, information on the origins of, and rights to, assets, controllers, politically exposed persons, matching with sanctions lists).

When you contact us via the contact form, our Customer Service, by email, telephone or chat, by letter or via other means of communication (e.g. customer portal), we collect the data exchanged between you and us, including your contact details and metadata relating to the communication.

We will specifically point out to you if we record telephone conversations, such as for evidence or training purposes. If you do not wish to be recorded, please let us know or end your call.

When communicating with you, for example when you submit a request for information, we sometimes also collect data to establish your identity (e.g. information from official identification documents, answers to security questions) in order to prevent us releasing information to unauthorised third parties.

In order to provide you with the best possible service and advise you on our products and services, we would like to find out your preferences and determine your requirements. To do this, we collect and use data about your behaviour when you interact with us and about the preferences you tell us or that we identify.

Behavioural data is comprised of details of certain actions, for example the use of electronic means of communication (e.g. whether and when you opened an email), the use of our websites or customer portals, the way in which you obtain products and services, your interaction with our social media profiles and your participation in prize draws, competitions and events. Preference data tells us about your requirements and which products or services might be of interest to you. We obtain this information from the analysis of existing data, such as behavioural data, so that we can tailor our consultation and our offers more precisely to you.

We may also collect data from you in other situations. In connection with official or judicial proceedings, for instance, data accumulates (e.g. files, evidence) that may also relate to you. We may also collect data for health protection reasons (e.g. within the framework of protection concepts).

We may receive or produce photographs, videos and audio recordings in which you may be identifiable (e.g. at events, by security cameras, etc.). You will always be asked for your consent or informed accordingly in advance. For security purpos-es, we may also collect data on who enters certain buildings and when, or who has corresponding access rights (e.g. in the case of access controls or based on registration data or visitor lists, etc.), who participates in events or campaigns (e.g. competitions) and when, or who uses our infrastructure and systems.

We obtain the data mentioned here primarily from you, but also from third parties (e.g. authorities) and in some cases also from our Group companies.

Prior to the conclusion of a contract, we process your data in order to offer you the desired consultation and relevant products as well as to contact you in this regard.

In the course of initiating business, personal data – in particular master data, contract data and communication data – of potential customers and other contracting parties is collected or is generated in relation to communication. We also process data in connection with the conclusion of the contract to check creditworthiness, in this case regarding credit standing and rating, to value collateral and to initiate the customer relationship. In some cases, this information is checked for compliance with legal requirements. If you apply to us for a loan, we also need your information to assess and evaluate the risk to be assumed by us (if necessary also with the assistance of third parties, e.g. Group companies). We may also carry out automated data processing and create customer profiles as a basis for our calculations (see clause 6 below). The decision to offer you a suitable loan agreement is not governed by any automated individual decision-making process.

If the contractual relationship is established, we process your data to implement the contractual relationship, in particular to provide and claim contractual services (e.g. repayments and interest charges), to manage the customer relationship (to prepare loan interest and capital certificates), as well as to communicate with you. This also includes consultation and customer support, the enforcement of legal claims arising from contracts (debt collection, court proceedings, etc.) as well as accounting or termination of contracts. In cases involving non-performing loans, we may need to process your data with the involvement of third parties. In this context, we process primarily master data, contract data and communication data.

In the case of collaboration with other companies, such as within the framework of corporate partnerships or in relation to intermediaries, we also process master and contract data in particular for the purpose of initiating and processing contracts.

Data that we require for statistical evaluations and data analyses is anonymised and aggregated and no longer allow any conclusions to be drawn about your person. The aggregated data is required for the creation of statistics (e.g. for the development of new insurance rates, product development and adjustments) or for topic-specific evaluations and data analyses, as well as for sales reporting. We also use the data of all existing contracts – likewise without the possibility of drawing conclusions about you personally – to analyse the entire customer base and for the fulfilment of our contractual obligations, for example for consultation regarding a contract adjustment or contract amendment or for the provision of comprehensive information.

We may use your data to send you advertising about our products and services as well as those of our Group companies and business partners (including products and services not related to mortgages), for example in the form of newsletters or other regular contacts (by email or post, by telephone or as part of other marketing campaigns such as competitions, events). In particular, we use your communication data for this purpose.

In order to make our offers more relevant to your requirements and interests, we personalise some of our communications to allow for an individual approach. The individual approach can be made in writing or by telephone. To do this, we link data that we process about you – in particular master data, contract data, behavioural data and communication data – and determine preference data as a further basis for personalisation. We can also create interest profiles about you and divide you into advertising groups.

In order to provide you with comprehensive advice on insurance, assets, pension and financial matters (e.g. financing, fund and other financial investments) and to make you offers for further products and services or to advertise them to you, we may process your master and contract data as well as the information disclosed on the occasion of the consultation conducted with your customer adviser.

To manage our relationships with customers and third parties, we may also invite you to our customer events and inform you about our products and services before, during or after the event.

You can inform us if you do not wish your data to be processed for the above purposes or if you wish to withdraw your consent in this regard (see contact address in clause 9).

We are committed to continuously developing our products and services to meet your needs. Therefore, we also sometimes contact you for market research purposes and use the results in anonymised form for addressing various questions within the company. To determine customer satisfaction, we can ask you about your experience with us. We also use your responses to contact you personally, to actively address your concerns and to improve our internal processes. We also collect, store and process your data for the evaluation, improvement and redevelopment of our products and services. In doing so, we analyse which products are used by which groups of people and which adjustments would be necessary in the future. The results of these analyses are – as far as possible – carried out in pseudonymised or anonymised form. For this purpose, we process the previously described master data, behavioural data and preference data as well as communication data.

In order to comply with laws and regulatory obligations (e.g. Anti-Money Laundering Act, sanctions), we must subject your data to more detailed investigations (e.g. with regard to identity, beneficial owners of funds or shareholdings in companies as well as for automated comparison with external watch lists) and in some cases share this data within the Group. We may be required to report to authorities or disclose records in certain cases. Personal data about you may be processed in the course of internal and external investigations, for example by law enforcement or supervisory authorities or an appointed private body.

The legal obligations may be subject to Swiss law, but also to foreign regulations to which we are subject. For these purposes, we process in particular your master data, contract data, claims data and communication data, but also behavioural data under certain circumstances.

We may also process your data for other purposes, for instance, as part of our internal processes and administration. This includes training, educational and administrative purposes (such as the management of master data, accounting, data archiving and the management and ongoing improvement of the IT infrastructure), the protection of our rights (e.g. to enforce claims in and out of court and before authorities in Switzerland and abroad, or to defend ourselves against claims, such as by preserving evidence, legal clarifications and participation in judicial or official proceedings), security purposes (e.g. access controls, monitoring of buildings), statistical purposes and the evaluation and improvement of internal processes. As part of the development of the company, we may also sell or acquire businesses, parts of businesses or companies to other companies or enter into partnerships, which may also lead to the exchange and processing of data.

Where we ask for your consent for certain forms of processing, we will inform you separately about the corresponding purposes of the processing.

If necessary for the conclusion or processing of the contract, data may also be shared with other companies belonging to the Group for the purposes of risk evaluation and assessment.

In order to comply with statutory obligations (e.g. in connection with investigations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing), we also transmit some data to companies of the Group (see clause 4.5).

In order to provide you with comprehensive advice on insurance, assets, occupational pensions and financial matters (e.g. financing, fund and other financial investments) and to provide you with offers for our own products and for the services of other Group companies or to advertise them to you, we may also pass on your master and contract data as well as the information provided during the consultation conducted with your adviser within the Group (e.g. Baloise Bank Ltd) for the purposes of contacting you and providing you with individual offers.

All Group companies have been obligated by us to treat your data confidentially.

You can inform us if you do not wish your data to be shared for the above purposes or if you wish to withdraw your consent in this regard (see contact address in clause 9).

You can request a list of the Group companies via the postal address or email address stated under clause 9 below.

If you are advised by an intermediary with regard to your loan or mortgage agreements, this intermediary will receive the information necessary for your support and consultation as well as the marketing of our products (e.g. contract term, contract fulfilment and termination) from the data created about you with us. In doing so, we comply with the power of attorney issued to the intermediary by you. Intermediaries are bound by law and contract to observe the provisions of the FADP.

Our business partners, who arrange mortgages for us through their sales network, are considered intermediaries. When you conclude such a loan or mortgage agreement, your data may also be shared, with your consent, between us and the business partner for marketing purposes.

Please let us know if you do not wish your data to be shared for marketing purposes (see contact address in clause 9 below).

We may also share your data with official bodies, courts and other authorities in Switzerland and abroad if we are legally obliged or entitled to do so or if this appears necessary to protect our interests. This includes compliance with statutory notification obligations, the exercise of rights, the defence against claims and compliance with legal requirements, for example within the framework of official, judicial and pre- and extrajudicial proceedings as well as within the framework of statutory duties to inform and cooperate.

Data is also disclosed if we obtain information from public bodies, for example when checking an address.

When checking your creditworthiness with the help of credit agencies and when commissioning debt collection companies (e.g. to collect outstanding payments), we may share your data (concerning changes in payment behaviour occurring before and during the term of the contract) with these companies. In this respect, our legitimate interest is to ensure that the tariffs we set reflect the risks involved. These companies store your personal data and may disclose it to other contracting parties as part of their activities, provided such contracting parties have presented a credible legitimate interest in individual cases for having the data transferred to them.

Your data may also be shared for the aforementioned purposes with other recipients (e.g. parties to judicial proceedings or purchasers of assets or divisions, auditing firms, Land Registry Offices and other public registers, notaries, pension funds, independent property appraisers and banks). Other persons are, in particular, recipients of a payment, authorised representatives, correspondent banks, other financial institutions and other bodies involved in a legal transaction.

Some of our services and business functions (e.g. in connection with the purchase of IT services or for marketing campaigns) are provided on our behalf by legally independent companies in Switzerland and abroad (see clause 9 below), which may process data about you if this is necessary for the performance of the contract. These service providers are contractually obliged to adhere to our standards for data processing, as well as to the applicable data protection legislation. Where contractually or legally provided, such service providers may in turn engage third parties under the same conditions.