Vancity Privacy Code.

Privacy Code updated: March 19, 2025

This Privacy Code includes important information governing your relationship with Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, Vancity Investment Management Ltd., Vancity Capital Corporation, SCU Insurance Services Ltd. and Vancity Life Insurance Services Ltd. (collectively, “Vancity”, “we”, “us” or “our”). At Vancity, we are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Code, together with our Digital Privacy Charter, explains how and why we collect, use and disclose your personal information, and how you can exercise your rights with respect to your personal information. The Vancity entity that controls and is accountable for your personal information is the Vancity entity with whom you have a relationship with.

This Code applies to the personal information of individual Vancity members, including sole proprietors, as well as signing officers on business accounts, and non-members who have interacted with Vancity. This Code does not apply to information about a business.

View the Vancity Community Investment Bank and its subsidiary, Citizens Trust Company, privacy policy on their website.

If you have any questions about the Privacy Code, contact any of our branches, Member Services Centre at 604-877-7000 or the Vancity Privacy Office at 604-877-8479.

Accountability.

Vancity has implemented a privacy program designed to ensure the safeguarding and appropriate handling of personal information. Vancity personnel with access to your personal information are responsible for managing it securely. The Vancity Privacy Office oversees our privacy program, which aims to identify, manage, and reduce privacy risks. We use a range of policies and procedures that are designed to help us achieve that objective. Vancity senior management and the Chief Privacy Officer have overall responsibility for our privacy program and our compliance with applicable privacy laws.

Please see ‘Contact Us’ for information on how to reach the Vancity Privacy Office.

Your personal information.

Under this Code, “personal information” means information about an identifiable individual. This can include information such as your name and date of birth.

We may collect personal information from you directly, such as when you apply for membership or products and services, use our online or mobile banking services, participate in community events, interact with representatives, or participate in surveys or contests. Examples of the personal information that we collect include your mailing address, telephone number, financial transactions, Social Insurance Number, email address, and employment information. We may also collect personal information from other sources, such as credit reporting agencies, references you have provided to us, other financial institutions, government agencies, and public registries.

For further details regarding the information we collect during our mobile and web interactions, please review our Digital Privacy Charter.

Collecting and using your personal information.

We collect and use your information to build and maintain our relationship with you, provide personalized products and services to you, manage our business, and comply with legal and regulatory requirements. The following sections expand on each of these uses and explains the choices available to you.

Building and maintaining our relationship.

To verify your identity in-branch, on the phone, while using our mobile app, or online banking services and to periodically confirm the accuracy of that information, we collect and use identifiers such as your name, address, telephone number, date of birth, and government-issued identity documents such as your passport or driver’s license. We may also ask you to upload a selfie photo or video along with your government issued identity document, so that we can verify your identity using facial recognition technologies.
We are required by law to collect your Social Insurance Number (SIN) for tax residency self-certification and for any products that earn investment income (including membership shares). We use your SIN to distinguish your identity from others. We may also collect and use your SIN in order to help match your credit record held by credit reporting agencies, but you providing your SIN for this purpose is optional. Should you opt out, we will use alternative means to identify you with credit reporting agencies. You may withdraw your consent to use your SIN for this purpose by visiting a branch or calling us at 604-877-7000.
To determine your eligibility for credit products and services, including credit cards, overdraft protection, line of credit, loan, mortgage, and other credit products and services, or hold/withdrawal/transaction limits, Vancity may collect information and reports about you from credit reporting agencies, financial institutions, and other lending institutions throughout your relationship with us. We use this information to assess your application, verify your identity, manage and assess our risks, review and verify your current and ongoing creditworthiness and/or establish credit and hold limits, update our records, and help us determine your eligibility for personalized products and services (including credit product pre-approval offers, balance transfer offers, and credit limit increases).
To determine your eligibility for health insurance products, your health and/or medical information may be collected during the application process and disclosed to our business partners for the purpose of underwriting and administering the insurance product. More information regarding the administration of the product may be found within the product terms.
To engage and communicate with you regarding benefits, features, or other information about products and services you hold with us, including but not limited to sending and receiving your responses to alerts relating to your accounts with Vancity (for example, potential fraudulent activity alerts). We may communicate with you via phone call, SMS, email, mail, or any other means for these purposes.

Providing personalized products and services.

To better understand your preferences and needs in order to provide you with personalized product and service recommendations, communications, and mobile and web experiences, we assess and analyze all personal information collected about members. For example, this may include reviewing account transaction data and investment balances to refer a member to our wealth advisory services or reviewing payment and credit history to offer a credit limit increase or alternative credit products.
To communicate with you directly regarding new products and services of interest, offers, events, and other marketing material, including by phone, SMS, email, mail or other means, we use your contact information. These communications may be customized according to the information we have about you and we may use any of your personal information for this purpose. You can opt-out of our use of your personal information for customized marketing offers and update your preferences regarding how we contact you for marketing purposes by completing an Opt-Out Form.
To provide a personalized web experience, including delivering interest-based advertisements relating to our products and services or third party products and services that may be of interest to you. Please see our Digital Privacy Charter for more information regarding our collection of information from you, your computer, or your mobile device and our use of cookies and similar technologies.
To conduct contests, surveys, and promotions, we use the information in your responses, as well as your name, address, and phone number. This information is used for administrative purposes or otherwise as described to you at the time of participation. Vancity may also use this information to help us understand our members and improve products and services.

Managing our business.

To help Vancity protect against fraud, criminal activity and error, we may use the information that we have collected about you. We will review your Vancity information that reflects your dealings with us and through us, such as your account or credit card transactions and records of inquiries by phone, online or in person. We may collect information from fraud prevention agencies, investigators or other registries to check the information you give to us.
To protect against fraud, criminal activity, and as a security feature for our members, we record video surveillance on premises. This includes branch, office, and ATM locations. If you do not wish to be recorded, you may use our telephone, web, and mobile banking services.
For mutual protection in cases of miscommunication or disputes, to improve member service, to improve or develop Vancity products and services, and for training and quality assurance purposes, Vancity may monitor and/or record your telephone calls with our representatives. We will tell you when a call is being recorded. If you do not wish to have your calls recorded, you may visit us in branch or choose to bank with us online or on our mobile app.
To conduct market research and data analytics to better understand our members, to improve Vancity products, services, and operations or for Vancity-approved third party research purposes, we use and analyze your information for research and study purposes. When feasible, we use data in an aggregated format, or remove identifiers by anonymizing or de-identifying information to minimize privacy risks.
To manage our business, risks and operations, collect debts, and enforce obligations. For example, your transaction history and information about the products and services you hold with us may inform these actions.
To investigate, manage, and address member inquiries, details you have provided to us may be used in conjunction with other information to work toward resolutions.

Complying with legal and regulatory requirements

To meet legal and regulatory requirements (such as anti-money laundering and income tax reporting requirements) we collect personal information such as your name, address, date of birth, citizenship, occupation, SIN, and other government-issued identification.

Automated processing and decision making.

We may use new and emerging technologies to assist us in day-to-day operations. These technologies do not replace our representatives but help in making our operations more efficient. Automated processes that monitor your accounts for fraud or other financial crimes are an example of this type of technology assisting our representatives. There are also certain instances in which we may use automated processing to make real-time decisions about you, such as for credit and loan adjudication. If you have questions, you can contact us as described in the Contact Us section below.

We may share your information as necessary within the Vancity companies identified in this Code, with our service providers, with other Vancity-approved third parties to provide the products and services you have requested, and with government, law enforcement agencies or other financial institutions for the purposes described in this Code below, and as it is required or permitted by law.

We may share your personal information with any of the Vancity companies identified in this Code, in order to manage your relationship with Vancity, administer Vancity’s banking operations, adjudicate credit, detect fraud and money laundering, service credit/loans, collect debts owed to Vancity, to perform analytics, and market products and services that may be of interest to you.

You can withdraw your consent to the disclosure of your personal information to other Vancity companies for marketing at any time. See “Your Choice” for more information.
Vancity engages third party service providers and trusted business partners to assist us with our operations and may allow them to process personal information on our behalf. Some of these services include paper and electronic mail distribution, marketing, advertising, analytics, and authorization and authentication services. Where personal information is shared with third parties and business partners, we confirm that they protect it in manner consistent with Vancity privacy and information security standards.

Our third-party service providers and business partners may be located outside of British Columbia and Canada. As a result, your personal information may be processed and stored in other jurisdictions, including the United States. For example, when you sign up for our Visa rewards program, your information may be transferred outside of British Columbia and Canada to administer the reward. Our service providers and business partners are subject to the laws and regulations of the countries in which they are located. Some of these jurisdictions may have laws that permit governments, courts, or law enforcement agencies to access your personal information in certain circumstances or may have less strict privacy laws than those in the jurisdiction where we supply you the services. All service providers and business partners with access to your personal information must follow Vancity’s privacy and information security standards as part of their contractual obligations.
We may share information with payment card networks to support the operation of their payment system. We may also share information with merchants with whom you have set up pre-authorized or automatic bill payments, such as an updated payment card number and expiry date, to enable continued service.
We may disclose information to third parties as it relates to business transactions. For example, personal information related to a financial asset or liability of Vancity along with transfer of the financial asset or liability. For example, the sale or transfer of a personal loan product to another financial institution.
Account details and transaction history will be accessible to joint account holders. Personal information may be shared with representatives (including a legal guardian, power of attorney, or lawyer), executors, committees, trustees, and beneficiaries where reasonably necessary.
For credit related products and services, including a credit card, overdraft protection, line of credit, loan, mortgage, other credit product, or hold/withdrawal/transaction limits, Vancity may collect and share information and reports about you from credit reporting agencies, financial institutions, and other lending institutions during the application process, and on an ongoing basis to review and verify your creditworthiness, establish credit and hold limits, help us collect a debt or enforce an obligation, and manage and assess our risks. For example, information regarding late payments, missed payments, and other defaults may be shared where relevant.
Vancity may acquire new businesses, sell all or some parts of its businesses, or merge or amalgamate part or all of its businesses with other entities. As personal information associated with any accounts, products or services of the business being purchased/sold/merged will typically be included in such transactions, Vancity may disclose such information to such other entities as part of the transaction or review prior to the transaction. Any such disclosure will be subject to appropriate privacy and security safeguards and compliant with any applicable law.
Sometimes it may be necessary for Vancity to share personal information with government, law enforcement agencies or other financial institutions to meet compliance, regulatory or financial crime risk management obligations, including to protect you and your business from financial crime. For example, if we receive a subpoena, search warrant, court or government order, we will release the information and limit it to what’s legally required. When required or permitted, we may release personal information to government authorities and investigative bodies for law enforcement purposes. We may also share personal information with other financial institutions to prevent fraud and other financial crime.

When permitted or required by law, Vancity may disclose personal information without consent, including:

During an emergency that threatens an individual’s life, health, or personal security.
When there is reason to suspect that a member may be the victim of abuse and Vancity is disclosing the information to a government institution or an authorized representative.
When Vancity needs to collect a debt from you.
When Vancity needs to deal with an anticipated breach of law.
To satisfy legal or regulatory requirements that we believe are applicable to us

Retaining and securing your personal information.

Vancity retains your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the information was collected, as well as for legal and business purposes. The length of time may vary and may extend beyond the termination of your membership with Vancity.

We take the security of your personal information seriously. We use a combination of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect your information. These measures include multi-factor authentication, encryption, obfuscation, and implementing restricted access controls for employees and authorized service providers. We have agreements in place with third-party service providers that are designed to ensure the personal information we provide to them will be safeguarded and used only for the purposes we have specified.

Accuracy

The accuracy, completeness, and currency of your personal information is important to us.

Members are responsible for informing Vancity of any changes to their personal information. In many cases, Vancity relies on you to ensure that personal information, such as your address, telephone number, and tax residency, is accurate. Keeping your personal information accurate lowers your fraud risk, avoids your statements being mailed to an incorrect address, and ensures accurate reporting on Vancity’s part.

If you believe that personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please contact us as described in the Contact Us section below.

Access to your personal information.

You may submit a written request for the information that we hold about you, through your branch or by email to the email address noted in the Contact Us section of this Code. We will require you to verify your identity before we respond to your request. Please note that your right to access your personal information is subject to certain legal restrictions.

If Vancity is unable to fulfill your access request within 30 days, a written notice of a time extension will be provided within 30 days of your request. The notice of extension will advise of the new time frame, the reason(s) for extending the time frame, and of your right to make a complaint to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia regarding the extension.

There may be a cost to fulfilling an access request, depending on the type and amount of information requested. When there is a cost, Vancity will inform you of the estimated cost and ask you whether Vancity should proceed with the request.

We are committed to and will make all reasonable efforts to provide the information in a way that is accessible to you.

If an access request is refused, in whole or in part, Vancity will provide written notification to the member of its refusal, reasons for refusal, and what other options the Member has.

If the information provided is inaccurate or incomplete, Vancity will amend the information as requested by the member and, where appropriate, share the amended information with relevant third parties.

Your choice.

We obtain your consent to collect, use, and disclose your personal information, except where otherwise permitted or required by law. We may request your consent when you apply for or accept a new product or service from Vancity or during various other interactions with us. In some cases, your consent may be “implied”. In other words, your permission is assumed based on your action or inaction at the point of collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information.

Your consent can be withdrawn at any time, except in limited circumstances, such as situations where withdrawal of consent is restricted by legal or regulatory requirements or as a result of your contractual obligations with us. Withdrawal or refusing to consent may prevent Vancity from providing a product or service to you. If the information is required by law or is necessary to operate banking systems, Vancity may discontinue the products and services you have with us. You may exercise this choice by contacting us in branch or the methods below.

You may opt-out of:

Allowing Vancity to use your SIN to verify credit information and confirm your identity by visiting a Vancity community branch or calling us at 604-877-7000.
Receiving email marketing communications from Vancity by visiting a Vancity community branch, calling us at 604-877-7000, clicking ‘unsubscribe’ within marketing emails that you receive or completing an online Opt-Out Form.
Receiving all direct mail and phone marketing communications by visiting a Vancity community branch, calling us at 604-877-7000, or completing an online Opt-Out Form . Opting out of marketing does not apply to promotional content on your written or electronic statements, or discussions during calls or branch visits.
Sharing your personal information with the Vancity Group of companies for the purpose of marketing communications by visiting a Vancity community branch, calling us at 604-877-7000.

To manage preferences regarding digital interest-based advertising, see our Digital Privacy Charter.

About this privacy code.

We may provide you with additional privacy terms for products and services when you sign up for them.

Vancity may update, amend or replace this Code from time to time and will notify you via vancity.com of any material changes to this Code. The Privacy Code at Vancity Privacy Code is always the most recent version.

Contact us.

Members should direct any questions, concerns, or complaints regarding this Code or our handling of their personal information to the Corporate Privacy Office. Our Privacy Office will handle each privacy complaint it receives per our internal policies, standards, and procedures. Members will receive a response within a reasonable time period.

Mail:

Vancouver City Savings Credit Union
Corporate Privacy Office

183 Terminal Avenue
Vancouver, B.C. V6A 4G2
ATTN: Chief Privacy Officer

Email:

privacy@vancity.com

Phone:

604-877-8479

If the Corporate Privacy Office is unable to address your concern, the issue may be referred to the Chief Complaints Officer.

Members may also contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.