Provincial Alliance Credit Union has a long history of respecting the rights of our members. Federal privacy legislation came into effect January 1, 2004 that governs how we must deal with your personal, confidential information. We always obtain your permission before obtaining your personal information. We will not collect, use or disclose personal information for any purpose other than what you intended it to be used for.

We obtain personal information about you to:

  • Establish and verify your identity
  • Understand your needs and to develop, manage and offer products and services that meet your needs
  • Determine your suitability and eligibility for products and services
  • Detect and prevent fraud which safeguard the financial assets of the credit union.
  • Evaluate your credit standing and to share information with credit reporting agencies
  • Comply with legal requirements

We keep this information only for as long as it is needed for the purposes described above.

If you require more information:

You can expect us to protect your privacy

At Provincial Alliance, your privacy is very important to us. You have the right to expect that the personal information we hold about you be kept accurate, confidential and secure. Provincial Alliance has a designated Privacy Officer who is accountable for monitoring the collection and security of personal information. The Privacy Officer also handles your inquiries about privacy and how Provincial Alliance uses your information.

Contact our Privacy Officer ldigiovanni@provincialalliance.com 1-877-523-7228 or 416-235-4373

We explain why we need your information

When we request personal information from you, we explain why we need it. For example, when you open an account we need at the very least, your name and address in order to provide you with regular account statements. When you apply for credit ­related products, we need information about your financial situation in order to make sound credit­ granting decisions, both for you and for us.

If you open an interest ­bearing account or an RRSP or other registered product, we're required to ask for your Social Insurance Number (SIN) by law.

You can give or withdraw your consent

We need to get your express or implied consent before obtaining or using information about you, or disclosing this information to anyone else. (There are exceptions, such as when we are required by law.) When you ask us to provide a product or service, we'll take this as your consent to collect and use the information necessary to deliver you that product or service. You can withdraw this consent whenever you want, unless legal requirements prevent this. However, this may seriously impede our ability to offer you products and services.

You can review and make corrections to your information

You can review the information we hold about you and make corrections to it. We may ask you to put your request in writing. If so, we will advise you of this before-hand. We will respond to your request within 30 days. If we need to extend the time, or must refuse your request, we'll tell you why, subject to any legal restrictions.

Your Social Insurance Number (SIN) is optional

We ask for your Social Insurance Number for:

  • income tax reporting required by law, and 
  • administrative purposes, such as ensuring:
    • an accurate match between your personal information and your credit bureau information when applying for products and services, and 
    • the accuracy and integrity of your personal information by using your SIN as a unique identifier for you. 

Giving us your Social Insurance Number is voluntary. If you provide your SIN, we will take this as your express consent to use it for the purposes described above. If you choose not to give us your SIN, this by itself will not prevent you from getting credit; however, it may prevent us from providing products where your SIN is required by law (e.g., interest ­bearing accounts or registered investments).

Credit Bureaus

When you apply for credit related products and services from us, we always get your written consent to obtain credit reports about you. Once we have granted you credit, we are required by the terms of contractual agreements with the credit bureaus to supply regular, current information on the status of loans or credit that we have granted you in order to maintain the accuracy, completeness and integrity of that information. We do not disclose more information than is required, nor for periods longer than is required.

Summary of the 10 Principles of the Credit Union Code for the Protection of Personal Information

1. Accountability
We have designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for our compliance with the principles of The Code.

2. Identifying Purposes
Before or at the time we ask you for personal information, we will identify the purposes for which it will be used or disclosed.

3. Consent
We require your knowledge and consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information.

3. Limiting Collection
The collection of personal information is limited to only the purposes we've identified to you.

4.Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention
We will only use or disclose your personal information with your consent (or as required by law). And we will only retain your information as long as necessary to fulfill identified purposes.

5. Accuracy
We will keep your information accurate complete, and up to date.

6. Safeguards
We will protect your personal information with appropriate security safeguards.

7. Openness
We will make specific, understandable information readily available to you about our personal information policies and practices.

8. Individual Access
When you require it, we will give you access to the existence, use, and disclosure of your information. You are entitled to question its accuracy and completeness, and its uses.

9. Challenging Compliance
You are entitled to question the Privacy Officer about our compliance with any of these principles.

10. Previously Collected Information
If you joined the credit union before January 1, 2004, we would have already collected and used certain information about you in order to provide you the products and services you have now. If you continue to use these products and services after January 1, 2004, we will assume that you consent to our continuing to retain, use, and disclose this information in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in this brochure.

Affiliated Companies

For some of the products and services we offer, we rely on the expertise of affiliated companies to deliver them (e.g., cheque­books). If you request such a product or service from us, we will assume your consent to disclose the information necessary to deliver that product or service to you. We ensure that all affiliated companies promise to employ privacy and security standards and procedures comparable to our own.

Direct Marketing

We may from time to time share personal information with other companies for direct marketing purposes if we reasonably believe you may have an interest in their product. We will never share information of a financially sensitive nature with other companies, and we will always give you the opportunity to opt out of such programs. If you do not opt out we will conclude that you have no objection to such disclosure. At any one time there are a very limited number of companies that we share information with. For a current listing of these particular companies, please see "Questions or Concerns" for contact information. If you would rather not be included in direct marketing programs, you can ask us to remove you from the contact list. This will not limit the information we may send you with your account statement, or any discussions your sales representative may have with you.

Questions or Concerns?

If you have any questions about privacy at Provincial Alliance, or would like to opt-out of any of direct marketing programs, please follow this procedure:
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