Panasonic Australia Pty Limited - Credit Reporting Policy

Panasonic Australia Pty Limited - Credit Reporting Policy

This Credit Reporting Policy explains how Panasonic Australia Pty Limited (Panasonic, we, us or our) will manage your credit information and your credit eligibility information.  Our handling of your credit information is in compliance with our obligation under the Privacy Act 1988 (Act) and the Credit Reporting Privacy Code (CR Code).

This document is to be read together with our Privacy Policy, available here

What credit information and credit eligibility does Panasonic collect?

We may collect, use, hold and disclose credit information and credit eligibility information about you. You consent to such collection, holding, use and disclosure of your credit information in accordance with the terms of this policy.

 

The terms "credit information", "credit eligibility information", "credit reporting information" and "personal information", as used in this policy, are as defined in the Act.

 

If you apply for commercial credit or provide a guarantee for commercial credit, the kinds of credit information and credit eligibility information that we may collect and hold include information used to identify you, your creditworthiness and any other related information necessary or incidental to the products and services which Panasonic provides or proposes to provide to you. This may include:

 

•  identification information; or

•  the fact that you have applied for credit and the amount; or

•  the fact that you have offered to be guarantor; or

•  the fact that Panasonic is a current credit provider to you; or

•  serious credit infringement; or

•  consumer credit liability information; or

•  repayment history information; or

•  a statement that an information request has been made in relation to you by a credit provider; or

•  payment or default information; or

•  new arrangement information; or

•  court proceedings information; or

•  personal insolvency information; or

•  publicly available information in relation to your creditworthiness.

 

Sometimes, we may gather credit information and credit eligibility information about you from a third party, such as the kinds of information listed above, for example, from credit reporting bodies (CRBs) or intermediaries and spouses or from publicly available information. Such information may be derived by a CRB from credit information held by the CRB about you.

 

The credit information that you provide allows us to perform our functions or activities.  We may not be able to provide you with credit in respect of the products or services you require if you do not provide all of the information requested or do not consent to how your credit information and credit eligibility information is managed in accordance with this policy.

How will Panasonic use your credit information and your credit eligibility information?

We will collect, hold, use and disclose credit information and credit eligibility information about you to:

 

•  assess your creditworthiness; or

•  assess applications for credit or whether to accept you as a guarantor in relation to credit; or

•  assist you to avoid defaulting on your credit obligations; or

•  notify other credit providers or a credit reporting body of a default by you;

•  comply with regulatory or legal requirements including the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), the Corporations Act 2001 and amendments to these acts or regulations or codes made pursuant to these acts; or

•  enable a third party such as an insurer to assess the risk of providing insurance; or

•  assess whether to accept a guarantor or the risk of a guarantor being unable to meet their obligations; or

•  assess whether to securitise and/or arrange for the securitising of the credit facility; or

•  where applicable under the law, consider hardship requests; or

•  assess whether to vary a credit facility we provide to you.

Storage of your credit information and credit eligibility information

We use industry-standard methods to protect your credit information and credit eligibility information from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure and misuse, interference and loss. Among other techniques, we usually store such information on a computer behind our "firewall" in a secure location, and we restrict the number of employees internally who can access such data.

 

Once credit information is no longer required by us for the purposes for which it was collected or held or otherwise in accordance with the Act, we will take all steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that it is either destroyed or de-identified.

Disclosure of credit information and credit eligibility information

We may disclose your credit information and credit eligibility information to any of the following third parties:

 

•  any regulatory, governmental organisation or industry or legal body which governs the conduct of any part of our business in any jurisdiction or as required by law or regulation;

•  a third party who is supplying a service to us;

•  any other third party provided that we obtain your prior written consent;

•  our financial advisers, legal advisers or auditors;

•  your representatives (including your legal adviser, mortgage broker, financial adviser, executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, or attorney);

•  where permitted by law, debt collection agencies or other lenders; or

•  as otherwise permitted by law.

Disclosure outside of Australia

We do not disclose your credit information or credit eligibility information to entities located overseas.

Credit reporting bodies and your credit information

Credit reporting bodies (CRBs) are permitted under the Act and the CR Code to use and disclose your credit information.  If you apply for commercial credit or offer to act as a guarantor, we may disclose your credit information to, or collect credit information about you from, a CRB. This information is used for the purpose of determining your eligibility for credit, and we may process the information to assess your creditworthiness and suitability for credit.

 

What CRBs do we deal with?

 

We only deal with the following CRB:

 

•  VEDA Advantage Ltd

   PO Box 964 North Sydney 2059, www.veda.com.au, 1300 762 207

 

Further information about how the above CRB manages credit related personal information can be found in its privacy policy available on its website or by contacting it directly.

 

CRB and fraud

 

If you think that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud, you can request the CRB not to use or disclose credit reporting information about you. 

 

Pre-screening and CRBs

 

You have the right to request a CRB not to use or disclose credit reporting information about you for the purposes of pre-screening of direct marketing by a credit provider.

Access to and correction of your credit information and credit eligibility information

You may request access to the credit information and credit eligibility information that we hold about you.  We may be able to provide you with access to this information in a manner that you request if this is reasonable and practicable. 

 

You may request us to correct the credit information and credit eligibility information held in relation to you if you believe that it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. 

 

You may make an access or correction request at any time by contacting the Privacy Officer whose details are:

 

Email:   privacy.officer@au.panasonic.com

Phone: (02) 9491 7400

Mail:     Privacy Officer, Panasonic Australia Pty. Limited

            1 Innovation Road, Macquarie Park

            NSW 2113

 

We will endeavour to respond to your request within 30 days.

 

If we do not agree to provide access or make the requested changes to your credit information and credit eligibility information, we will notify you of this in writing, providing our reasons for the refusal.

 

If you are not satisfied with our response to your access or correction request, you can make a complaint to the OAIC. Please see our "Approach to complaints handling" section below.

 

To ensure that you have access to the most up to date credit information about you, you should also request access to credit reporting information about you held by the CRBs listed above.

Approach to complaints handling

You have the right to make a complaint if you believe that we have not complied with our obligations under the Act and the CR Code. To make a complaint, please contact us in writing using the contact details listed below.

 

We will endeavour to respond to your complaint within 30 days.

 

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you may wish to refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. For contact details, please see www.oaic.gov.au

Contact details

If you have any questions about this policy, please email privacy.officer@au.panasonic.com or mail the "Privacy Officer", Panasonic Australia Pty. Limited, 1 Innovation Road, Macquarie Park, NSW 2113.

 

Changes to the credit reporting policy

We may, at our discretion, change our approach to the handling of credit information and will, in such instances, update the Credit Reporting Policy to reflect these changes. The most up-to-date copy of the Credit Reporting Policy will be available at www.panasonic.com.au.

 

This document is effective and up to date as at 5 May 2014.