Privacy Policy
The words "we," "our," and "us," when used in this Privacy Notice, mean Bank of Hiawassee, Blairsville and Blue Ridge, A Division of Citizens South Bank, Citizens South Bank and its affiliates under common control or ownership, Citizens South Banking Corporation, Citizens South Financial Services, Inc., and Citizens South Investment Services. This is our Privacy Notice for our customers. When we use the words "you" and "your" we mean the following types of customers:
• Our consumer customers who have a continuing relationship by purchasing or holding financial products or services such as a(n):
- Deposit account
- Loan account
- Safe deposit box
- Financial, investment, or economic advisory services
- Mortgage brokerage services
- Individual Retirement Account where we act as custodian
• Former customers: We will tell you the sources of the information we collect about you. We will tell you what measures we take to secure that information.
We first define some terms.
"Nonpublic personal information" means information about you that we collect in connection with providing a financial product or service to you. Nonpublic personal information does not include information that is available from public sources, such as telephone directories or government records. Hereafter, we will use term "information" to mean nonpublic personal information as defined in this section.
An "affiliate" is a company we own or control, a company that owns or controls us, or a company that is owned or controlled by the same company that owns or controls us. Ownership does not mean complete ownership, but means owning enough to have control.
A "nonaffiliated third party" is a person we do not employ or a company that is not an affiliate of ours. This is also known as nonaffiliated third party, or simply, an "other party" or "third party."
"Opt out" means a choice you can make to prevent certain sharing of information. We will explain how you can exercise this choice.
PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT TO US
The bank recognizes our obligation to keep the sensitive information you have entrusted to us secure and confidential. In order to provide you with a broad range of financial products and services as effectively and conveniently as possible, we use technology to manage and maintain information about you. The following policy serves as a standard for all our employees regarding the collection, use, retention, and security of nonpublic personal information.
COLLECTION, RETENTION AND USE OF INFORMATION
We collect, retain, and use information about our customers only where we reasonably believe it would be useful to provide products and services to our customers; identify you and protect your accounts from unauthorized access and to understand your financial needs so that we can provide you with quality products and excellent service.
We collect nonpublic personal information about you 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.
- Information that we receive in response to request we make to third parties about you or to confirm information that you have provided to us, particularly in the process of evaluating applications for loans.
- Information you provide via Internet inquiry to us or via Internet to help us identify you.
We continually strive to maintain complete and accurate information about you and your accounts. Should you ever believe that our records contain inaccurate or incomplete information about you, please notify us. We will investigate your concerns and make any necessary corrections in a timely manner.
We may disclose nonpublic personal information as follows:
- Information that we receive from you to third parties, such as credit reporting agencies, federal and state regulators, and loan investors, in order to do business with you, or as permitted by law.
- Information that we receive from you on an application such as deposit or loans that you have with other financial institutions or your employment, for example ( in order to verify the accuracy of the information that you have provided to us).
- Information that we receive from you on an application such as existing loan balances to be paid from our loan proceeds, for example (to persons who will be involved in the closing of the loan, such as attorneys and title companies).
The bank does not sell or share nonpublic personal information with unrelated third parties, except as required or permitted by law.
We may also share nonpublic personal information with companies that perform services on our behalf, such as vendors who prepare monthly statements, process checks, or provide support of one or more of our products or services. These business partners are bound under the terms of our contracts with them to maintain the confidentiality of the information we provide to them and are restricted from using the information for any reason other than what is specified in the agreement.
We may share with companies related to us by common control or ownership ("affiliates") only information about the transaction and experience information from your account with us as permitted by law. Our affiliates offer other financial services. Unless you tell us not to, we may also share other information about you with our affiliates for various purposes, such as offering to you, or considering you for, other products, services or opportunities made available by Citizens South Bank or our affiliates.
Other information may include:
- Information we obtain from your application, such as your income or marital status;
- Information we obtain from a consumer report, such as credit history, and
- Information we obtain from others to verify information provided by you, such as your credit or other relationships with third parties.
Our Bank website and online banking services are not directed to children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
OPT OUT
If you prefer that we do not share this information to our affiliates, you may direct us not to do so by contacting your local Bank of Hiawassee, Blairsville and Blue Ridge branch or by calling (706)896-2243 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday or by completing the form below and mailing to the address indicated.
If you previously sent us an opt out form, then we will continue to apply your instruction to the information you asked us not to share. You do not need to call or return another opt out form.
YOUR CHOICE TO STOP MARKETING
- Bank of Hiawassee, Blairsville and Blue Ridge is providing this notice.
- You may choose to stop all marketing from us and our affiliates.
To stop all marketing, contact us by contacting your local Bank of Hiawassee, Blairsville and Blue Ridge branch or by calling (706)896-2243 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday.
Note: Joint Accounts – For a joint account (account held by two or more consumers), each of the joint accountholders may exercise the right to opt out. We will treat an opt-out direction by one joint accountholder as applying to all of the joint accountholders with respect to that joint account.
EMPLOYEE ACCESS TO CUSTOMER INFORMATION
Our employees access information about you when needed to maintain your accounts or otherwise meet your needs. We may also access information about you when considering a request for additional services or when exercising our rights under the law or any agreement with you. We safeguard information according to established security standards and procedures regarding unauthorized access and we continually assess new technology for protecting information. Our employees are bound by our Code of Ethics and are trained to recognize the importance of confidentiality and customer privacy.
OUR COMMITMENT TO PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY
We recognize and respect the privacy expectations of our customers. We want you to understand our commitment to privacy in our use of customer information. As a result of our commitment, we have developed these Privacy Principles and made them available to our customers.
