As a company offering lenders mortgage insurance products and services we collect and hold a range of credit related information.

This includes a broad range of information about loan applicants and proposed third party security providers. This information can also include such things as loan application information, contact details, identification information, financial information and supporting documentation (including credit history and employment details), transaction history information, repayment history, details of your bank accounts, credit application information with other credit providers, information related to your credit worthiness which is derived by us or by CRBs, court proceedings information, personal insolvency information and credit-related publicly available information.

As an organisation offering lenders mortgage insurance products and services, we also derive a range of personal information from the credit-related information we hold. This includes information such as last known addresses, any defaults, directorships, judgements, bankruptcies, writs, summons and external administration.

This information may be used to determine the credit worthiness of an individual, to manage claims, to measure their ability to repay the insured loan and for debt recovery, enforcement and infringement activities.

We usually collect credit-related information from a third party such as a credit provider, bank, customer owned bank (together ‘mortgage lenders’) as well as mortgage brokers and originators. These mortgage lenders (not the borrowers) are the insured party for all insurance policies issued by Helia. We also collect credit-related information from publicly available information; directly from you or others acting on your behalf; or from CRBs, including information derived from other credit-related information we receive from CRBs.

We hold your credit-related information electronically and in various systems such as our underwriting information database, claims database and document management storage repositories and/or in hard copy.

Access to personal information held by Helia is controlled to prevent misuse or unauthorised disclosure of the information. We utilise a range of technical security measures such as secure authentication, password controls, encryption, firewalls and anti-virus technology to prevent unauthorised access to your information.

We collect, hold, use and disclose this information for various purposes including:

• to undertake and complete insurance transactions we have with mortgage lenders, and/or business partners
• a lenders mortgage insurance purpose in relation to the individual
• any purpose arising under a contract for lenders mortgage insurance that has been entered into between the mortgage lender and Helia
• management of claims
• underwriting
• technical accounting and auditing
• risk analysis and risk management
• scoring and portfolio analysis
• debt recoveries
• managing debt recovery, enforcement and infringement activities
• comply with any relevant laws, regulations, codes of practice and court orders.

The Privacy Act allows Helia to disclose credit-related information provided to Helia and its related bodies corporate to third parties in certain limited circumstances. We may disclose your credit-related information to other Helia entities and to third parties for the purposes listed above. This includes making disclosures to our service providers to enable them to perform services that assist Helia in the provision and management of our products and services to you.

Where such disclosure is made, we require these third parties to adhere to our strict confidentiality requirements for handling credit-related information and also seek to ensure that they adhere to the Privacy Act. For more information about our disclosures of credit-related information, please refer to our Privacy Officer.

Some of these third parties to whom Helia may disclose credit-related information may be located outside Australia, and credit-related information may be provided to them for the purposes listed above. It is not reasonably practicable to list all of the countries to which credit-related information may be disclosed from time-to- time but it is likely that such countries could include the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, India and Ireland. 

We may disclose your credit-related information to CRBs, subject to the terms of the Privacy Act. We currently share credit-related information with Equifax:

Equifax
PO Box 964
North Sydney, NSW 2059
Phone: 13 8332
equifax.com.au/personal/corrections-portal

For Equifax's current contact details please visit their website at equifax.com.au You may obtain a copy of Equifax's credit reporting information management policy by contacting them or visiting their website.

Your rights in relation to CRBs

Opting out of direct marketing pre-screenings

Your credit reporting information may be used by a CRB to assist a credit provider (such as a mortgage lender) in marketing to you by pre-screening you for direct marketing by the credit provider. You have the right under the Privacy Act to request that Equifax does not use your credit reporting information for prescreening. Please contact Equifax if you do not want them to use your information for the purpose of prescreening.

If you wish to obtain details of your credit-related information that we hold, please contact our Privacy Officer. We will attend to your request or complaint as quickly as possible. Helia reserves the right to refuse access under the grounds permitted by the Privacy Act.

If you believe that the credit-related information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, you have the right to request that we change the information.

In order to process any request for access or correction of your credit related information, we will need to obtain a minimum level of information from you including the following: full name, address, date of birth, lender’s name and details of the request, including supporting information (where relevant).

If you are seeking information on another person’s behalf, we may require written authorisation from that individual.

Please contact our Privacy Officer for further details by telephoning (02) 8248 2597 or by email at privacyofficer@helia.com.au. We will attend to your request as quickly as possible.

If you believe we have not complied with an obligation under the Privacy Act in relation to your credit-related information under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act and the Credit Reporting Code, please contact our Privacy Officer on (02) 8248 2597 or by email at privacyofficer@helia.com.au. We will attend to your complaint as quickly as possible.

If you are not satisfied with how we have dealt with your complaint, you may refer the complaint to Helia's external dispute resolution (EDR) scheme, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, whose details are as set out below.

Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
GPO Box 3
Melbourne Vic 3001
Email: info@afca.org.au
Website: afca.org.au
Phone: 1800 931 678

Contact details of the Helia Privacy Officer
The Privacy Officer
Helia
PO Box 3952
Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: (02) 8248 2597
email: privacyofficer@helia.com.au