The Park Avenue Bank is concerned about guarding your privacy and considers it a normal part of doing business. We do not give out any non-public personal information about our customers or former customers except as may be permitted or required by law.
We obtain information about our customers when they initiate a transaction with our company, such as opening a deposit account or applying for a loan, and as necessary to service an existing relationship. We obtain nonpublic personal information about our customers from the following sources:
- information we receive from you on applications or other forms;
- information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others; and
- information we receive from a consumer reporting agency.
We only obtain such information as we believe to be necessary (and allowed by law) to provide products, services, and other opportunities to our customers.
We have established procedures and controls to ensure that the information we maintain is accurate, current and complete. We have procedures in place to correct inaccurate information in a timely manner if, at any time, it is discovered that the information maintained by us is inaccurate, incomplete, or not up-to-date.
We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information. Only those employees with a legitimate need to know have access to our customers’ information. We follow strict standards for protecting our customers’ privacy by use of Employee Code of Conduct, Privacy Procedures and procedures for Safeguarding Customer Information.
In the course of providing certain products and services to you, we may disclose the following information to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements:
- Information we receive from you on applications or other forms, such as your name, address, assets, and income;
- Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others, such as your account balance, payment history, parties to transactions, and credit card usage; and
- Information we receive from a consumer-reporting agency, such as your creditworthiness and credit history.
We may disclose the non-public personal financial information shown above to financial service providers such as securities broker-dealers, insurance companies, and credit card companies with whom we have joint marketing agreements.
We may report information about your account to credit bureaus. Late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report.
We also have contracts with third party vendors to provide goods and services to our customers. For example, it is necessary to provide your name, address, and account number to our check supplier in order to provide you with checks for your deposit account. We provide only that information which is necessary in order to provide these goods and services. All our vendors are required to maintain our customer information in the strictest confidentiality, pursuant to a written agreement.
We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about our customers or former customers to anyone, except as permitted or required by law or regulatory requirements.
We do not collect identifying information about visitors to our website, however your information may be stored in a "cookie" file on your hard drive. This file contains no personal information and will not be shared with any third party. You may remove this cookie at your discretion at any time. If you are a customer either reviewing your account or transacting business on our website, then we must collect certain information to process your requests. This information may consist of your account numbers, security verification information, and e-mail address. Further, if you choose to participate in our bill payment service, then we must collect information about the companies you wish to pay in order to process your bill payment transactions.
We have contracted with a third party to make internet services available to our customers. We will provide our internet service provider (ISP) with only that information necessary to conduct transactions for our customers. Our contract with our ISP requires them to maintain your information with the same high level of confidentiality with which we maintain your information. Our ISP maintains ICSA certification. ICSA certification reflects a commitment to secure internet transactions and the existence of state-of-the-art website security technology.
We have many security features in place to protect your information on the internet. We use multi-factor authentication consisting of a PAB Net ID, PAB Net Pin, a personal image and secret questions. You can further protect your account information by signing off of your computer when you have completed your transaction, changing your PIN frequently, and by not sharing these codes with anyone. If you forget to sign off or are inactive for 10 minutes, our internet banking system will sign off for you. Also, we use a third-party to monitor usage, so if you attempt to access your account from a location that is not recognized, you will be asked personal questions you have previously given us answers to before it will allow you access.
In addition to the foregoing, secure browsers, such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Netscape’s Navigator 7.x and higher, AOL 4.x and 7.x and higher, Mac Power PC Netscape 7.x, Safari for Mac or FireFox 2.0 are required to access your information as additional protection of your account information. We support 128-bit encryption browsers. Encryption serves to “scramble” your private, financial information as it moves between your computer at home and ours.
Firewalls are also used to ensure that only authorized transactions occur. Internal reports, produced by our internet system, are reviewed daily by our authorized personnel to assist in ensuring that only authorized transactions have occurred.
We also offer links to other websites that may be of interest to you. Please note, however, that when you leave our website, you are leaving our secure site and entering a site over which we have no control.
There are many new companies offering services to internet customers. Some of these companies offer to bring all of your financial information to one website for your review. Please be aware that if you provide your Subscriber ID and PIN to one of these companies, you are authorizing them to access your account. Any transactions that may take place in your account as a result are considered authorized by you. If you wish to cancel this type of account, you will need to change your ID and PIN by signing on and clicking the “Options” button.
We use secure mail powered through zix mail for any correspondence sent through our email system containing attachments or numbers. This helps ensure protection of your information. However, always use caution when sending any correspondence through electronic mail containing personal information, as it could be subject to attack within the routing process.
There are numerous regulations in place to ensure your privacy, such as the Federal Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Our company is committed to complying with the letter and spirit of all laws and regulations affecting our business. We believe that this is another facet of the quality customer service you expect from us.
If you should have any questions regarding The Park Avenue Bank’s plan to protect your privacy, please let us know. You may call us at 229-241-2797 or 800-394-2321.
