Privacy policy

This page explains how Norwich and Peterborough Building Society (www.npbs.co.uk) uses the information you give to us, and the ways in which we protect your privacy. If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we will share it with third parties.

Confidentiality

We will treat all your personal information as private and confidential, and will not give any details about you or your accounts to anyone else unless we have your consent, or where the law compels or allows us to do so. We may, therefore, share your information with third parties to protect both ourselves and our customers against theft and fraud, and to prevent money laundering.

By providing us with information, you are expressly authorising us to use it in accordance with this policy.

Where information is stored

The information which you provide or which we obtain through our dealings with you or in connection with your account will be held on the Society's computers and in other records.

You may ask us for a copy of information held about you on our records (on payment of a fee) and to ask for any inaccurate details to be amended.

How your personal information is used

The information which we ask you to provide is used to open, administer, and manage your accounts, and to deal with your enquiries. We will make it clear why we need the information and how we will use it, and we may obtain it from you directly, from a third party you authorise to act on your behalf, or from other organisations such as credit reference agencies.

Information about you and your accounts will be shared within the Group (Norwich and Peterborough Building Society; Norwich and Peterborough Insurance Brokers Ltd and Hockleys Professional Limited) to enable us to make lending decisions, recover debts, verify your identity, to detect and prevent fraud and money laundering, or for marketing purposes. This may mean passing your details on to third parties or receiving information about you from third parties.

Sharing information with other organisations:

Lending decisions - credit reference agencies

If you apply for a mortgage we will use a licensed credit reference agency to perform a search of the information they hold about you and the conduct of your financial affairs. This enquiry will be recorded by the agency. If the mortgage proceeds, we will provide details of your agreement with us, your payments, and any default or failure to keep to its terms to the credit reference agency. These records will be accessed by other organisations to assist them in their lending decisions. By carrying out a credit reference search, we will also access the CML Possessions Register which records all properties taken into possession. The credit reference agencies may use your information for statistical purposes. We also credit score current account applications.

You may obtain the names and addresses of the credit reference and fraud prevention agencies we use from time to time by telephoning 45050 (when calling from Gibraltar). You have right of access to your personal records held by these agencies.

Debt recovery - Debt collection agencies, solicitors and tracing agencies.

If you default on a loan agreement with us, we will give you 28 days' notice before asking credit reference agencies to record the default, which will remain on their records for 6 years.

We may also authorise a third party, such as a debt collection agency or solicitor, to act on our behalf to recover the debt.

If we cannot trace you, we may pass your details to a tracing agency.

Fraud prevention

To protect us against fraud and other criminal activity we may check your details against, and share information with a variety of fraud prevention agencies. In addition, money laundering legislation requires all financial institutions to collect and record personal information to confirm a customer's identity (see opening an account link), and to report any transactions arousing suspicion to the National Criminal Intelligence Service.

Marketing

As part of our service we may use your details to keep you informed about products, services and offers (including those of other selected organisations) that we consider you may be interested in, either by letter, telephone, or e-mail. We may also invite you to take part in market research. When you open an account or apply for a mortgage or other product or service with us, we will give you the opportunity to tell us if you do not wish your information to be used for these purposes by ticking the relevant opt-out box on the application form. You can also write to us at any time to ask to have your name removed from our mailing list.

We do not give to, or share any information with external companies for their own marketing purposes. Where we provide products or services through another company we will clearly identify them and explain how your information will be used by us and them.

Occasionally we use external companies to carry out work on our behalf - for example the addressing of letters for large mailings. When we do so, we only use reputable companies with robust processes and stringent security, and our contract with them will not allow them to use your information for any other purpose.

Telephone calls

For security and staff training purposes we may record or monitor calls you make to us.

CCTV

CCTV operates throughout our branch network and at our Head Office.

E-mails

If you contact us by e-mail we will record your e-mail address and, in addition to the specific services that you request, we may also contact you by e-mail with details of other products and services offered by the Society, which we believe may be relevant or of interest to you. If you do not want us to do this, please check the appropriate box on the 'contact us' page.

For your own security you are advised not to send any confidential information to us by e-mail, and we will not include any confidential information about you or your account details in any e-mail that we send to you.

Cookies

The Society may use cookies or other similar text files when you visit certain parts of our website. A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your browser and stored on your computer hard drive. Cookies are used to improve the information and services we provide. The instructions or help screen on your internet browser will provide information on how to block the use of cookies.