We at Citizens & Farmers Bank ("C&F Bank") take pride in the way we quickly respond to changes in technology and data processing, but we also take pride in our adherence to the more old-fashioned virtue of customer confidentiality. When a customer opens an account with us, that customer provides us with private financial and personal information, and we are committed to maintaining the confidentiality of that information. Our customers are not only protected by federal and state laws but by C&F Bank's pledge to uphold the spirit and letter of those laws. We describe our commitment to uphold our customer's trust in this Customer Privacy Statement.
As a financial institution, C&F Bank maintains information about our customers for several reasons. We have learned that the more we know about our customers, the better we can understand their unique financial needs and therefore provide them with appropriate products and exceptional quality service. For example, if we knew you were a homeowner in need of financing, we would recommend that you consider a home equity loan as an alternative to an installment loan because of its potential tax benefits for you.
We also collect and analyze customer information as the first step in product development. Our goal is to spot trends or changes in the way our customers manage their finances. With this constantly updated information, we are able to create new products and services or improve existing ones, giving you more effective tools to manage your money.
In addition, there are some cases where we gather information to comply with laws or regulations governing the financial industry. For example, we are required by federal regulations to obtain a tax identification number (usually a social security number) for many of our accounts, including all savings, checking, or investment accounts that pay interest.
We use some of the data we collect to maintain the security of your account(s) and to protect the privacy of your financial information. We must be able to positively identify you and your products and services to prevent unauthorized access by unauthorized individuals.
We collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources:
We are committed to maintaining complete and accurate information about our customers, and we employ reasonable measures to ensure the accuracy, timeliness, and thoroughness of this information. If you think the information we have about you or your account(s) may be incorrect, please notify us immediately. We will investigate your concerns and correct any inaccuracies in a timely manner.
We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about our customers or former customers to anyone, except as permitted by law.
In our ongoing effort to provide you with superior service and offer you financial products we think you would find beneficial, we will share information about our current and former customers within the C&F Bank financial family, including our bank, our mortgage company (C&F Mortgage Corporation), our title company (C&F Title Agency, Inc.), our investment company (C&F Investment Services, Inc.) and our insurance company (C&F Insurance Services, Inc.). In doing so, we are able to offer you a complete financial package, with the best accounts, products, and services for all your personal and business needs. As a result of this sharing within the C&F Bank family, you may receive easier access to certain account features, new or enhanced products, special promotional offers, and certain discounts you may otherwise not have known about or been eligible to receive.
We want to assure you that we carefully try to limit the use and collection of customer information to only what is necessary to conduct our business, provide outstanding service, and offer opportunities we think would be useful to you. You have our commitment that we will use customer information only in accordance with the principles outlined within this policy.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, we are permitted by law to share within the C&F Bank financial family information about your transactions or experiences with us and our affiliates, such as your account balance or payment history. Unless you tell us not to, we also share within the C&F Bank financial family:
The affiliates that we share this information with are financial service providers, such as mortgage lenders, securities brokers-dealers and insurance agents.
You may request that information about you not be shared within the C&F Bank financial family (other than information related to your transactions or experiences with us) by completing the "Customer Information Opt Out" form that will be given to you at account opening. The completed form should be mailed to us at Affiliate Information Sharing, C&F Bank, PO Box 391, West Point, VA 23181. Please allow at least 3 weeks for your request to take effect.
If two or more customers jointly obtain a product or service from us (joint customers), we will treat a direction not to share information within the Citizens and Farmers financial family as applying to all jointly associated parties, even though the other joint parties gave no such direction.
Although we at C&F Bank are committed to protecting the confidentiality of your financial information, we occasionally provide information about you to other companies outside of the C&F Bank financial family with whom we do business.
We may disclose nonpublic personal information about you to nonaffiliated third parties as permitted by law. For example, we are required to share your financial information with parties named in a lawsuit or administrative action when we are served with a subpoena or court order and with federal or state regulatory authorities, such as banking examiners or the Internal Revenue Service, as authorized by federal or state law. Consistent with the practice of other financial institutions, we also share information about you and your account(s) with us with reputable credit reporting agencies as authorized under federal law and with others who may receive certain information from us under particular circumstances, but only as permitted or required by law.
Further, we may contract with other respectable companies in our efforts to offer you additional attractive products and services. We may disclose all of the information we collect, as described above, to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements. Also, we may contract with outside service providers. For example, those who process check orders, perform internal audits, or provide other materials or services on our behalf. These businesses agree to comply with our customer confidentiality requirements and must abide by applicable laws.
We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. An important part of our employee orientation program is the emphasis we place on customer confidentiality. All of our employees are aware of their responsibility with respect to customer information. Employee access to customer information is to be authorized for business purposes only and is to be based on the type of information and our employee's "need to know". Our employees must adhere to our Code of Conduct or will be subject to disciplinary action.
C&F Bank is committed to the security of your financial and personal information. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information. All of our operational and data processing systems are in a secure environment that protects your account information from being accessed by third parties. We maintain and grant access to customer information only in accordance with our internal security standards.
C&F Bank does not knowingly market to or solicit information from children under 13 without parental consent. We recognize that protecting children's identities and privacy online is important. Parents should always be aware of their child's online activity. The internet is a public network. Children's access to the Internet can allow them to visit inappropriate Web sites and be exposed to unwanted risks. COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, protects children under the age of 13 from the online collection of personal information.
We may collect information online through cookies, which are pieces of information stored directly on the computer you are using. Cookies can contain a variety of information, such as a simple count of how often you visit a Web site or information that allows customization of a Web site for your use. C&F Bank uses cookies to display information more effectively to you and to gather data about the usage of our Web site.
C&F Bank's Privacy Policy and Fair Credit Reporting Act notice is provided on behalf of the following companies:
