As we offer lenders mortgage insurance and services, we collect and hold a range of credit-related information.

This includes a broad range of information about loan applicants and proposed third party security providers. This information may include such things as loan application information, contact details, identification information, financial information and supporting documentation (including credit history, proprietorship information, directorship information, and/or employment details), transaction history information, repayment history, details of your bank accounts, credit application information with other mortgage lenders, information related to your credit worthiness which is derived by us or by CRBs, court proceedings information and judgments, personal insolvency information and credit-related publicly available information.

As an organisation offering lenders mortgage insurance products and services, we may derive a range of personal information from the credit-related information we hold. This includes information such as last known addresses, any defaults, directorships, judgements, bankruptcies, writs, summons and external administration.

This information may be used to determine the credit worthiness of an individual, to manage claims, to measure their ability to repay the insured loan and for debt recovery, enforcement and infringement activities.

We usually collect credit-related information from a third party such as a mortgage lender as well as mortgage brokers and originators. These mortgage lenders (not the borrowers) are the insured party for all lenders mortgage insurance policies issued by Helia. We also collect credit-related information from publicly available information; directly from you or others acting on your behalf; or from CRBs, including information derived from other credit-related information we receive from CRBs.

We hold your credit-related information electronically and in various systems such as our underwriting information database, claims database and document management storage repositories and/or in hard copy.

Access to personal information held by Helia is controlled to prevent misuse or unauthorised disclosure of the information. We utilise a range of technical security measures such as secure authentication, password controls, encryption, firewalls and anti-virus technology to prevent unauthorised access to your information.

To the extent permitted by the Privacy Act and Code, we collect, hold, use and disclose credit-related information for various purposes including:

• to undertake and complete insurance transactions we have with mortgage lenders
• a lenders mortgage insurance purpose in relation to the individual
• any purpose arising under a contract for lenders mortgage insurance that has been entered into between a mortgage lender and Helia
• management of claims
• underwriting
• risk analysis and risk management
• scoring and portfolio analysis
• debt recovery, enforcement and infringement activities
• compliance with any relevant Australian laws, regulations, codes of practice and court or tribunal orders.

The Privacy Act allows Helia to disclose credit-related information provided to Helia and its related bodies corporate to third parties in certain circumstances. To the extent permitted by the Privacy Act, we may disclose your credit-related information to other related bodies corporate and to third parties for the purposes listed above (including where the disclosure is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or court or tribunal order). This includes making disclosures to our service providers to enable them to perform services that assist Helia in the provision and management of our products and services.

Where such disclosure is made, we require these third parties to adhere to our strict confidentiality requirements for handling credit-related information and also seek to ensure that they adhere to the Privacy Act. For more information about our disclosures of credit-related information, please refer to our Privacy Officer.

Some of these third parties to whom Helia may disclose credit-related information may be located outside Australia, and credit-related information may be provided to them for the purposes listed above. It is not reasonably practicable to list all of the countries to which credit-related information may be disclosed from time-to-time but it is likely that such countries could include the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, India and Ireland.

If you default in your obligations to the mortgage lender to repay the loan and the mortgage lender assigns your loan contract and mortgage to us, then we may report your default to a credit reporting body in accordance with the Privacy Act. We will give prior written notice to you of reporting of default information.

A court may also record a judgment in respect of the default in our favour. Please note that the credit reporting body may obtain the judgment and then include your information in credit reports that it gives other organisations to help them assess your credit worthiness. The default information and/or judgment may adversely affect your credit worthiness and, consequently, may affect your ability to obtain credit from other mortgage lenders.

We may provide default information to Equifax:

Equifax Pty Limited

PO Box 964

North Sydney NSW 2059

Phone: 13 8332

https://www.equifax.com.au/personal/corrections-portal

For Equifax's current contact details please visit their website at equifax.com.au. You may obtain a copy of Equifax's credit reporting information management policy by contacting them or visiting their website.

If you wish to obtain details of your credit-related information that we hold, please contact our Privacy Officer. We will attend to your request or complaint as quickly as possible. Helia reserves the right to refuse access under the grounds permitted by the Privacy Act.

If you believe that the credit-related information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, you have the right to request that we change the information.

In order to process any request for access or correction of your credit-related information, we will need to obtain a minimum level of information from you including the following: full name, address, date of birth, lender’s name and details of the request, including supporting information (where relevant). 

If you are seeking information on another person’s behalf, we may require written authorisation from that individual.

Please contact our Privacy Officer for further details by telephoning (02) 8248 2597 or by email at privacyofficer@helia.com.au. We will attend to your request as quickly as possible.

If you believe we have not complied with an obligation under the Privacy Act in relation to your credit-related information under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act and the Credit Reporting Code, please contact our Privacy Officer on (02) 8248 2597 or by email at privacyofficer@helia.com.au or by post: Level 26, 101 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060. We will attend to your complaint as quickly as possible.

If you are not satisfied with how we have dealt with your complaint, you may refer the complaint to: Helia's external dispute resolution (EDR) scheme, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and/or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, whose details are as set out below.

Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)

GPO Box 3

Melbourne VIC 3001

Email: info@afca.org.au

Website: afca.org.au

Phone: 1800 931 678

and/or

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

GPO Box 5288

Sydney NSW 2001

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Website: oaic.gov.au

Phone: 1300 363 992