Customer Privacy Notice

When we refer to ”we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice it means Ascot Bridging Finance Ltd ( Reg No 07664649), Ascot Bridging Finance 2 Ltd (Reg No 12198771), Ascot Bridging Finance 3 Ltd (Reg No 13276850) and Ascot Bridging Finance 4 Ltd (Reg No 13970023), trading as Ascot Bridging Finance and are registered in England and Wales.

Why should you to read this document?

During the course of dealing with us, we will ask you to provide us with detailed personal information relating to your existing circumstances, your financial situation and, in some cases, your health and family health history (Your Personal Data). This document is important as it allows us to explain to you what we will need to do with Your Personal Data, and the various rights you have in relation to Your Personal Data.

What do we mean by “Your Personal Data”?

Your Personal Data means any information that describes or relates to your personal circumstances.   Your Personal Data may identify you directly, for example your name, address, date or birth, National Insurance number and the like. Your Personal Data may also identify you indirectly, for example, your employment situation, your physical and mental health history, or any other information that could be associated with your cultural or social identity.

In the context of providing you with assistance in relation to your Finance/Bridging requirements Your Personal Data may include:

  • Title, names, date of birth, gender, nationality, civil/marital status, contact details, addresses and documents that are necessary to verify your identity
  • Employment and remuneration information, (including salary/bonus schemes/overtime/sick pay/other benefits), employment history
  • Bank account details, tax information, loans and credit commitments, personal credit history, sources of income and expenditure, family circumstances and details of dependents
  • Health status and history, details of treatment and prognosis, medical reports (further details are provided below specifically with regard to the processing we may undertake in relation to this type of information)
  • Any pre-existing finance/bridging and the terms and conditions relating to these

The basis upon which our Firm will deal with Your Personal Data

When we speak with you about your finance/bridging requirements we do so on the basis that a both parties are entering a contract for the supply of services.

In order to perform that contract, and to arrange the products you require, we have the right to use Your Personal Data for the purposes detailed below.

Alternatively, either in the course of initial discussions with you or when the contract between us has come to an end for whatever reason, we have the right to use Your Personal Data provided it is in our legitimate business interest to do so and your rights are not affected.  For example, we may need to respond to requests from mortgage lenders, insurance providers and our Service Provider relating to the advice we have given to you, or to make contact with you to seek feedback on the service you received.

On occasion, we will use Your Personal data contractual responsibilities we may owe our regulator The Financial Conduct Authority, or for wider compliance with any legal or regulatory obligation to which we might be subject.  In such circumstances, we would be processing Your Personal Data in order to meet a legal, compliance or other regulatory obligation to which we are subject.

The basis upon which we will process certain parts of Your Personal Data

Where you ask us to assist you with your insurance needs, in particular life insurance and insurance that may assist you in the event of an accident or illness, we will ask you information about your ethnic origin, your health and medical history (Your Special Data). We will record and use Your Special Data in order to make enquiries of insurance providers in relation to insurance products that may meet your needs and to provide you with advice regarding the suitability of any product that may be available to you.

If you have parental responsibility for children under the age of 16, it is also very likely that we will record information on our systems that relates to those children and potentially, to their Special Data.

The arrangement of certain types of insurance may involve disclosure by you to us of information relating to historic or current criminal convictions or offences (together “Criminal Disclosures”). This is relevant to insurance related activities such as underwriting, claims and fraud management.

We will use special Data and any Criminal Disclosures in the same way as Your Personal Data generally, as set out in this Privacy Notice.

When we process your Special Data and any Criminal Disclosures we do so on the basis that it is in the substantial public interest to be able to provide vital insurance products and as permitted by UK data protection related laws and regulations from time to time. Information on Special Category Data and Criminal Disclosures must be capable of being exchanged freely between insurance intermediaries such as our Firm, and insurance providers, to enable customers to secure the important insurance protection that their needs require.

How do we collect Your Personal Data?

We will collect and record Your Personal Data from a variety of sources, but mainly directly from you. You will usually provide information during the course of our initial meetings or conversations with you to establish your circumstances and needs and preferences in relation to finance/bridging.   You will provide information to us verbally and in writing, including email.

We may also obtain some information from third parties, for example, credit checks, information from your employer, and searches of information in the public domain such as the voters roll.  If we use technology solutions to assist in the collection of Your Personal Data for example software that is able to verify your identity on-line or to access your credit status. We will only do this if we have consent from you for us or our nominated processor to access your information in this manner, details of how such software operates will be provided to you prior to the activation of the service.

What happens to Your Personal Data when it is disclosed to us?

In the course of handling Your Personal Data, we will:

  • Record and store Your Personal Data in our paper files, mobile devices and on our computer systems (websites, email, hard drives, and cloud facilities). This information can only be accessed by employees and consultants within our Firm and only when it is necessary to provide our service to you and to perform any administration tasks associated with or incidental to that service
  • Please specifically note that we may disclose your personal data to credit reference agencies to assist them in the collection and maintenance of personal data about you relating to your payment of debts and general credit worthiness, and with fraud prevention agencies to help prevent fraud and money laundering. They in turn may share this information with other organisations, such as other finance companies that you approach to provide you with products and services.
  • The three main credit reference agencies in the United Kingdom, TransUnion (formerly called Callcredit), Equifax and Experian have created an industry-wide notice called the “Credit Reference Agency Information Notice” (CRAIN) which sets out clearly how they use and share personal data they receive about you and/or your business that is part of or derived from or used in credit activity. You can find a copy of this notice at www.callcredit.co.uk/legal-information/bureau-privacy-notice. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
  • Use Your Personal Data for the purposes of responding to any queries you may have in relation to any finance/bridging you may take out, or to inform you of any developments in relation to those products and/or polices of which we might become aware

Sharing Your Personal Data

From time to time Your Personal Data will be shared with:

  • Ascot Bridging Finance 2 Ltd and/or Ascot Bridging Finance 3 Ltd and/or Ascot Bridging Finance 4 Ltd
  • Third parties who we believe will be able to assist us with your enquiry or application, or who are able to support your needs as identified. These third parties will include but may not be limited to, our Compliance Advisers, Product specialists,funders, auditors, bankers, insurers, insolvency practitioners, HMRC, any applicable regulators, credit referencing and fraud prevention agencies, providers of legal services such as estate planners, conveyancing, surveyors and valuers (in each case where we believe this to be required due to your particular circumstances).

In each case, your Personal Data will only be shared for the purposes set out in this customer privacy notice, i.e. to progress your finance/bridging enquiry and to provide you with our professional services.

Please note that this sharing of Your Personal Data does not entitle such third parties to send you marketing or promotional messages: it is shared to ensure we can adequately fulfil our responsibilities to you, and as otherwise set out in this Customer Privacy Notice.

We do not envisage that the performance by us of our service will involve Your Personal Data being transferred outside of the European Economic Area.

Security and retention of Your Personal Data

Your privacy is important to us and we will keep Your Personal Data secure in accordance with our legal responsibilities. We will take reasonable steps to safeguard Your Personal Data against it being accessed unlawfully or maliciously by a third party.

We also expect you to take reasonable steps to safeguard your own privacy when transferring information to us, such as not sending confidential information over unprotected email, ensuring email attachments are password protected or encrypted and only using secure methods of postage when original documentation is being sent to us.

Your Personal Data will be retained by us either electronically or in paper format for a minimum of six years, or if longer than six years, the duration of this Firm’s relationship with you.

Your rights in relation to Your Personal Data

You can:

  • request copies of Your Personal Data that is under our control
  • ask us to further explain how we use Your Personal Data
  • ask us to correct, delete or require us to restrict or stop using Your Personal Data (details as to the extent to which we can do this will be provided at the time of any such request)
  • ask us to send an electronic copy of Your Personal Data to another organisation should you wish
  • change the basis of any consent you may have provided to enable us to market to you in the future (including withdrawing any consent in its entirety

How to make contact with our Firm in relation to the use of Your Personal Data

If you have any questions or comments about this document, or wish to make contact in order to exercise any of your rights set out within it please contact Alison Gibson

If we feel we have a legal right not to deal with your request, or to action, it in different way to how you have requested, we will inform you of this at the time.

You should also make contact with us as soon as possible on you becoming aware of any unauthorised disclosure of Your Personal Data, so that we may investigate and fulfil our own regulatory obligations.

If you have any concerns or complaints as to how we have handled Your Personal Data you may lodge a complaint with the UK’s data protection regulator, the ICO, who can be contacted through their website at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ or by writing to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Data Subject Consent Form

I hereby grant Ascot Bridging Finance permission to process my personal data for the purpose stated in the Privacy statement above.

Signed:

Print Name:

Date:

Marketing Consent

I hereby grant Ascot Bridging Finance permission to process my personal data for the purpose of Marketing. By providing your consent, you agree that you have given your express permission for us to market you regarding products and services that we think may be of interest to you and by any means of communication that is suitable at the time.

IMPORTANT NOTES: Marketing by our Firm

If you do not indicate your agreement for us to make contact with you, we may be unable to provide you with details of products and/or services that may suit your needs and circumstances.

We would like to maintain a record of your express consent for us to contact you by post, telephone, SMS, email and instant messaging for marketing our products or services that we think may be of interest to you. Please indicate your consent to us contacting you by any of the means specified below:

Post      Phone       SMS      Email      Instant Messaging*    *Whatsapp or similar service.