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This Circular is brought to the attention of various individuals including without limitations bank customers, individuals to whom services or products may be provided by the Group (as hereinafter defined), applicants for banking services and facilities, sureties and persons providing security or guarantee for credit facilities, as well as shareholders, directors, officers and managers of corporate customers or applicants and other contractual counterparties ("Customers") so that Customers may have a better understanding of the rights under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the "Ordinance") and the reasons and necessities of providing personal data to the Shanghai Commercial Bank Limited and/or its Hong Kong subsidiaries (the "Group").
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| A. | From time to time, it is necessary for Customers to supply the Group with data in connection with the opening or continuation of accounts and the establishment or continuation of banking facilities or provision of banking or other financial services or tenancy and property management services. |
| B. | Failure to supply such data may result in the Group being unable to open or continue accounts or establish or continue banking facilities or provide banking or other financial services. |
| C. | It is also the case that data are collected from Customers in the ordinary course of the continuation of the business relationship, for example, when Customers write cheques, deposit money, repay indebtedness, use electronic banking services, conduct transactions in relation to securities, insurance or cards, or generally communicate verbally or in writing with the Group. |
| D. | Where applicable, the purposes for which data relating to a Customer may be used, processed, stored, transferred, disclosed and/or exchanged by the Group (whether in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or elsewhere) are as follows:-
| i. | the processing of applications for services and credit facilities; |
| ii. | the daily operation of the services and credit facilities provided to Customers, including for credit assessment, statistical or behaviour analysis, or creating and maintaining the Group's credit scoring models; |
| iii. | provision of reference; |
| iv. | conducting credit and status checks (including without limitations upon applications for consumer credit and periodic or special reviews of such credit); |
| v. | assisting other financial institutions, card issuers or credit reference agencies to conduct credit checks and collect debts; |
| vi. | maintaining application and credit history of Customers for internal reference, and ensuring ongoing credit worthiness of Customers; |
| vii. | researching, designing financial services or related products for Customers' use; |
| viii. | marketing services or products of the Group and/or selected companies; |
| ix. | determining the amount of indebtedness owed to or by Customers; |
| x. | collection of amounts outstanding from Customers and those providing security for Customers' obligations; |
| xi. | meeting the requirements to make disclosure to relevant government or supervisory authorities, polices or courts under the requirements of any applicable law, regulation or court order binding on the Group or any of its branches and offices or under and for the purposes of any codes, guidelines, circulars or directions issued by regulatory or other authorities with which the Group or any of its branches and offices are expected to comply; |
| xii. | enabling an actual or proposed assignee of the Group, or participant or sub-participant of the Group's rights in respect of the Customer to evaluate the transaction intended to be the subject of the assignment, participation or sub-participation; |
| xiii. | the performance of procedures for comparing (whether by manual or automated means) the Customer's data with other information supplied by the Customers (for whatever purposes), including without limitation, procedures undertaken for the purpose of taking adverse action against Customers; |
| xiv. | giving effect to the Customer's orders relating to transactions or otherwise, and carrying out instructions of the Customer; |
| xv. | providing services in connection with the accounts, whether the services are provided by or through, the Group or any other person; |
| xvi. | exchanging information with merchants accepting credit cards issued by the Group and organizations with whom the Group provides affinity/co-branded/private label credit card services; and |
| xvii. | all other incidental and associated purposes relating to any of the above. |
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| E. | Data held by the Group relating to a Customer will be kept confidential but the Group may provide such information to the following parties (whether in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or elsewhere), where applicable, for the purposes set out in Paragraph (D):-
| i. | any agent, contractor, claim adjuster or third party service provider who provides administrative, data processing, financial information, telecommunications, computer, debt collection, technology outsourcing, payment or securities clearing, insurance or other services to the Group in connection with the operation of its business; |
| ii. | any other person under a duty of confidentiality to the Group including a group company of the Group, a business partner or other merchant or affinity entity which has undertaken expressly or impliedly to keep such information confidential ; |
| iii. | the drawee bank providing a copy of a paid cheque (which may contain information about the payee) to the drawer; |
| iv. | credit reference agencies, and, in the event of default, to debt collection agencies; |
| v. | any person to whom the Group is under an obligation to make disclosure for public interest or under the requirements of any law, regulation or court order binding on the Group or any of its branches and offices or under and for the purposes of any codes, guidelines, circulars or directions issued by regulatory or other authorities with which the Group or any of its branches and offices are expected to comply; |
| vi. | any actual or proposed assignee of the Group or participant or sub-participant or transferee of the Group's rights in respect of the Customer; |
| vii. | selected companies for the purpose of informing Customers of products or services which the Group believes will be of interest to Customers; |
| viii. | any nominees in whose names securities or other assets may be registered or custodians who may hold securities or other assets; |
| ix. | any person with whom the Group enters into or proposes to enter into a transaction on behalf or on account of the Customer, or persons representing the same; |
| x. | any assignee, transferee, participant, sub-participant, delegate, successor or person to whom the securities account agreement is novated; |
| xi. | any person with the express or implied consent of the Customers; and |
| xii. | any third party in connection with (D)(x). |
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| F. | Customers' data may be processed, stored and transferred or disclosed in and to another jurisdiction outside the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the Group or data recipient referred to in Paragraph (E) considers appropriate and necessary. Such data may also be processed, stored, released or disclosed in accordance with the local practices and laws, rules and regulations (including any governmental acts and orders), codes, guidelines, circulars and directions issued by regulatory or other authorities in such jurisdiction. |
| G. | Under and in accordance with the terms of the Ordinance and the Code of Practice on Consumer Credit Data approved and issued with revisions from time to time under the Ordinance:-
| i. | any relevant individual has the right:-
| a. | to check whether the Group holds data about him and of access to such data; |
| b. | to require the Group to correct any data relating to him which is inaccurate; |
| c. | to ascertain the Group's policies and practices in relation to data and to be informed of the kind of personal data held by the Group; |
| d. | in relation to consumer credit, to request to be informed which items of data are routinely disclosed to credit reference agencies or debt collection agencies, and be provided with further information to enable the making of an access and correction request to the relevant credit reference agency or debt collection agency; and |
| e. | in relation to data which has been provided by the Group to a credit reference agency (except where the consumer credit applied for involves a residential mortgage loan), to instruct the Group upon termination of an account by full repayment to make a request to the credit reference agency to delete such data from its database, as long as the instruction is given within 5 years of termination and at no time did the account have a default of payment lasting in excess of 60 days within 5 years immediately before account termination (as determined by the Group). |
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| ii. | where applicable, the Group may from time to time access the consumer credit data of an individual held by any credit reference agency in the course of the consideration of any grant of consumer credit or the review or renewal of existing consumer credit facilities granted to the individual as borrower or to another person for whom the individual proposes to act or acts as guarantor or for the purpose of the reasonable monitoring of the indebtedness of the individual while there is currently a default by the individual as borrower or as guarantor. In particular, the Group may from time to time access the consumer credit data for the purpose of the review of the existing consumer credit facilities granted to assist the Group in considering any of the following matters:-
| a. | an increase in the credit amount; |
| b. | the curtailing of credit (including the cancellation of credit or a decrease in the credit amount); and |
| c. | the putting in place or the implementation of a scheme of arrangement with the individual customer. |
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| iii. | in relation to consumer credit, in the event of any default in repayment, unless the amount in default is fully repaid before the expiry of 60 days (as measured by the Group) from the date such default occurred, the individual customer will be liable to have his/her account data retained by any credit reference agency to which the Group has provided his/her data until the expiry of 5 years from the date of final settlement of the amount in default or 5 years from the date of discharge from a bankruptcy as notified to the credit reference agency, whichever is earlier. |
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| H. | The Group may have obtained a credit report on the Customer from a credit reference agency in considering any application for credit. In the event the Customer wishes to access his/her own credit data, the Group will advise the contact details of the relevant credit reference agency. |
| I. | In accordance with the terms of the Ordinance, the Group has the right to charge a reasonable fee for the processing of any data access request. |
| J. | The person to whom requests for access to data or correction of data or for information regarding policies and practices and kinds of data held are to be addressed as follows:-
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The Data Protection Officer
Shanghai Commercial Bank Limited
12 Queen's Road Central
Hong Kong
Fax: (852) 2525 2336
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| K. | Customers may, at any time, choose not to receive our promotional material. Please contact the Group's staff for details when necessary. |
| L. | Customers acknowledge that telephone calls with the Group's staff may be recorded and used as evidence by the Group without further notice. |
| M. | Nothing in this Circular shall limit the rights of Customers under the Ordinance. |
| N. | In the event of any inconsistency between the English and Chinese versions of this Circular, the English version shall prevail. |
| O. | This Circular as may be revised, amended or updated from time to time shall from the date hereinafter appeared be deemed an integral part of all contracts, agreements, credit facility letters, account mandates and other binding arrangements which you have entered into or intend to enter into with the Group. |