Data Protection Notice

This Data Protection Notice (“Notice”) sets out the basis which Hong Leong Finance Limited (“we”, “us”, or “our”) may collect, use, disclose or otherwise process personal data of our clients in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (“PDPA”). This Notice applies to personal data in our possession or under our control, including personal data in the possession of organisations which we have engaged to collect, use, disclose or process personal data for our purposes.

Personal Data

As used in this Notice:

“client” refers to our current or prospective customer, account holder, borrower, guarantor or surety or person furnishing any security for a customer, account holder or borrower.

“personal data” means data, whether true or not, about an individual who can be identified: (a) from that data; or (b) from that data and other information to which we have or are likely to have access.

Other terms used in this Notice shall have the meanings given to them in the PDPA (where the context so permits).

Collection, Use And Disclosure Of Personal Data

Depending on the nature of your interaction with us, some examples of personal data which we may collect from you include name, identification numbers such as NRIC, FIN, work permit and birth certificate numbers, residential address, email address, telephone number, nationality, gender, date of birth, marital status, employment information, financial information, thumbprint and specimen signature. We generally do not collect your personal data unless (a) it is provided to us voluntarily by you directly or via a third party who has been duly authorised by you to disclose your personal data to us (your “authorised representative”) after (i) you (or your authorised representative) have been notified of the purposes for which the data is collected, and (ii) you (or your authorised representative) have provided consent to the collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal data for those purposes, or (b) the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal data without consent is permitted or required by the PDPA or other laws. We shall seek your consent before collecting any additional personal data and before using or disclosing your personal data for a purpose which has not been notified to you (except where permitted or authorised by law).

From time to time, we may require you to supply personal data of third parties which may be relevant, including personal data of the guarantors, legal or beneficial owners, family members, managers or directors (e.g. information about whether any immediate family members has/have been entrusted with prominent public functions, or whether you have been served with any statutory demand under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 etc.). If you refuse or are unable to provide such personal data for our use and disclosure as described in this Notice, or if subsequently any action taken results in us ceasing to be entitled to collect, use or disclose such personal data as described in this Notice, we may not be able to open or maintain accounts or begin or continue to provide a product (or part thereof) or other facilities or services to you – where possible, we will inform you of the relevant consequences prior to taking any action thereof.

If you are required to supply such personal data to us, or if you have provided such personal data to us, we expect you to have informed each individual whose personal data is supplied or provided to us that we may use their personal data for one or more of the purposes described in this Notice. Unless you notify us in writing otherwise, you additionally confirm, for and on behalf of each such individual, that we may collect, use and disclose all or any part of such personal data for any of the purposes described in this Notice. By supplying or providing such personal data, you agree that you have obtained such consent from such individuals, and further undertake to provide evidence of such consent to us upon reasonable request.

We may collect and use personal data (including personal data of third parties provided by you) for any or all of the following purposes:

the processing, daily application, and provision of products, accounts, facilities and/or services;
to respond to your (or your authorised representative’s) requests, questions, queries or feedback;
to carry out Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism checks, as well as complying with laws, regulations, notices, circulars, guidelines, industry codes and materials circulated by any association or body of which we are a member or subscriber and directions or requests (by whatever name called) received from any Government department or regulatory body or statutory authority or body to which we are a member or subscriber, including where relevant the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, the Hire Purchase, Finance and Leasing Association of Singapore and any stock exchange, clearing house or central depository;
for the conduct of credit checks or the collection or payment of debts;
where a product or facility involves a share loan, for any purpose relating to administering, exercising rights in or otherwise dealing with such shares, which may involve disclosure to the corporation to which any of the shares pertain;
to carry out risk analysis, statistical analysis and for other general data processing relating to the products, accounts, facilities and/or services;
to market our products, accounts, facilities and/or services through voice calls, SMS/text message, fax, email and other method of communication, where permissible under law or upon client request;
to continue to provide information and materials as provided prior to 2 July 2014 where such provision of information or material continues to be part of the provision of our products, accounts, facilities and/or services;
to enable our actual or proposed assignee or participant, sub-participant or transferee of our rights in respect of a client to evaluate the transaction intended to be the subject of the assignment, participation or sub-participation;
to enforce or defend our rights and our employees, officers and agents, contractual or otherwise; and
other purposes directly or indirectly relating to any of the above, including disclosure to persons authorised by any entity mentioned in this paragraph for the purposes for which the disclosure to that entity was initially made by us,

both inside and outside Singapore.

6A. We may disclose your personal data:

where such disclosure is required for performing obligations in the course of or in connection with our provision of the products and other accounts, facilities and/or services requested by you; and/or
to third party service providers, agents and other organisations we have engaged to perform any of the functions with reference to the abovementioned purposes, for example mailing houses, market research companies, translators, clearing systems, fund managers, nominees, issuers, underwriters, and outsourced service providers.

Personal data may be transferred and subsequently used and disclosed by service providers, agents and other organisations we have engaged. In particular, for products or facilities which involve the charge, assignment or other security over assets given by you to us, relevant personal data may be disclosed by us, and collected, used and disclosed by a nominee (including where relevant Hong Leong Finance Nominees Pte Ltd or Singapore Nominees Pte Ltd) for any of the purposes as listed in clause 6 above.

Where the disclosure involves the transfer of your personal data outside Singapore, a standard of protection that is comparable to that under this Notice shall be provided.

The purposes listed in the above clauses may continue to apply even in situations where your relationship with us has been terminated or altered in any way, for a reasonable period thereafter (including, where applicable, a period to enable us to enforce our rights under a contract with you).

Cookies

When you browse our website, you generally do so anonymously but please note our usage of cookies, as described at clauses 11- 13 below. We do not, at our website, automatically collect personal data, including your email address unless you provide such information.

Cookies are small text files stored in your computing or other electronic devices when you visit our website for record keeping purposes. Cookies are stored in your browser’s file directory, and the next time you visit the website, your browser will read the cookie and relay the information back to the website that originally set the cookie. Depending on the type of cookie it is, cookies may store user preferences and other information.

Our website uses the following cookies:

Analytics Cookies
We use Google Analytics on this website to collect non-personal data to help us improve the visitor experience. This data is collected by way of a cookie dispatched when you download a page. This cookie does not identify any person or individual. You can refer to Google Analytics Privacy Policy (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245) for more information.

We may employ cookies as follows:

to track information such as the number and profile of visitors and their frequency of use;
to receive and record information on our server logs from your browser when you interact with us on our website, and using such information to understand how people use our website and to help us improve its structure and contents. We may collect for the purposes of analysis, statistical and site-related information including, without limitation, information relating to how a visitor arrived at the website, the browser used by a visitor, the operating system a visitor is using, a visitor's IP address, and a visitor's click stream information and time stamp (which may include for example, information about which pages they have viewed, the time the pages were accessed and the time spent per web page);
to better tailor products and other accounts, facilities and/or services to your preferred settings; and/or
to allow us to understand the effectiveness of our communication.

If you do not agree to such use of cookies, you can adjust your browser settings. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings to block cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our website, even if you have previously deleted our cookies. If you do not agree to our use of cookies and other technologies as set out in this Notice, you should delete or disable the cookies associated with our website by changing the settings on your browser accordingly. However, you may not be able to access certain part(s) of our website. This may also impact your user experience while on our website. You can also choose to opt out of Google Analytics (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout) if this is supported for your browser.

Withdrawing Your Consent

The consent that you provide for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal data will remain valid until such time it is being withdrawn by you in writing. You may withdraw consent and request us to stop collecting, using and/or disclosing your personal data for any or all of the purposes listed above by submitting your request in writing to our Customer Service Officer at the contact details provided below.

Upon receipt of your written request to withdraw your consent, we may require reasonable time (depending on the complexity of the request and its impact on our relationship with you) for your request to be processed and for us to notify you of the consequences of us acceding to the same, including any legal consequences which may affect your rights and liabilities to us. In general, we shall seek to process your request within ten (10) business days of receiving it.

Whilst we respect your decision to withdraw your consent, please note that depending on the nature and scope of your request, we may not be in a position to continue providing our products and other accounts, facilities and/or services to you and we shall, in such circumstances, notify you before completing the processing of your request. Should you decide to cancel your withdrawal of consent, please inform us in writing in the manner described in clause 15 above.

Please note that withdrawing consent does not affect our right to continue to collect, use and disclose personal data where such collection, use and disclose without consent is permitted or required under applicable laws.

Access To And Correction Of Personal Data

If you wish to make (a) an access request for access to a copy of the personal data which we hold about you or information about the ways in which we use or disclose your personal data, or (b) a correction request to correct or update any of your personal data which we hold about you, you may submit your request in writing to our Customer Service Officer at the contact details provided below.

Please note that a reasonable fee may be charged for an access request. If so, we will inform you of the fee before processing your request.

We will respond to your request as soon as reasonably possible. In general, our response will be within thirty (30) business days. Should we not be able to respond to your request within thirty (30) days after receiving your request, we will inform you in writing within thirty (30) days of the time by which we will be able to respond to your request. If we are unable to provide you with any personal data or to make a correction requested by you, we shall generally inform you of the reasons why we are unable to do so (except where we are not required to do so under the PDPA).

Protection Of Personal Data

To safeguard your personal data from unauthorised access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risks, and loss of any storage medium or device on which your personal data is stored, we have introduced appropriate measures such as up-to-date antivirus protection, encryption and disclosing personal data both internally and to our authorised third party service providers and agents only on a need-to-know basis.

You should be aware, however, that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. While security cannot be guaranteed, we strive to protect the security of your information and are constantly reviewing and enhancing our information security measures.

Retention Of Personal Data

We may retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required or permitted by applicable laws.

We will cease to retain your personal data, or remove the means by which the data can be associated with you, as soon as it is reasonable to assume that such retention no longer serves the purpose for which the personal data was collected, and is no longer necessary for legal or business purposes.

Effect Of Notice And Changes To Notice

This Notice applies in conjunction with any other notices, contractual clauses and consent clauses that apply in relation to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal data by us.

We may revise this Notice from time to time without any prior notice. You may determine if any such revision has taken place by referring to the date on which this Notice was last updated. Your continued use of our services constitutes your acknowledgement and acceptance of such changes.

Effective date: 08/12/2015

Last updated: 31/05/2023