Privacy Policy

ZAL Fin ("we", "us", "our") is a mortgage and finance broking business operated by Zac Al-Hasani, an authorised credit representative (Credit Representative Number 578743) of National Lending Group Pty Ltd (Australian Credit Licence 412778). We are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information, including credit information, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code.

1. What personal information we collect

To provide credit assistance and to comply with our legal obligations, including under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth), we may collect the following types of information:

• Identity information — your name, date of birth, address, contact details, and copies of identification documents (such as your driver's licence, passport or Medicare card) required to verify your identity under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
• Financial information — details of your income, employment, assets, liabilities, expenses, superannuation, bank statements, tax returns and payslips.
• Credit information — information about your credit history, current and past loans, repayment history, defaults, credit applications and credit scores obtained from credit reporting bodies.
• Property information — details of properties you own or intend to purchase.
• Sensitive information — in limited circumstances, we may collect sensitive information (for example, health information relevant to insurance referrals or hardship applications), but only with your consent.
• Other information — information about your objectives, requirements and financial situation needed to assess which credit products may be suitable for you, and any other information you choose to provide.

2. How we collect your information

We collect personal information in a variety of ways, including:

• directly from you, in person, by phone, by email, through forms, or via our website (including the enquiry form and calculators);
• from third parties with your consent, such as your employer, accountant, financial adviser, solicitor or real estate agent;
• from credit reporting bodies, lenders and other credit providers;
• from publicly available sources, such as property title searches; and
• through our website via cookies and analytics tools (see section 9).

If you provide us with personal information about another person (for example, a co-borrower, guarantor or spouse), you must ensure that person is aware of this Privacy Policy and consents to their information being collected and handled in accordance with it.

3. Why we collect, hold and use your information

We collect, hold and use your personal information to:

• assess your financial situation, objectives and requirements;
• provide credit assistance, including recommending and arranging home loans, commercial loans, construction loans and asset finance;
• verify your identity;
• act as an intermediary between you and lenders, lenders' mortgage insurers, and other service providers;
• manage our ongoing relationship with you, including reviewing your loan arrangements;
• comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth), the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), and our licensing obligations;
• respond to your enquiries and complaints; and
• with your consent, provide you with information about products and services that may interest you (see section 6).

If you do not provide the information we request, we may be unable to provide credit assistance to you.

4. Who we disclose your information to

We may disclose your personal information to:

• lenders, credit providers and lenders' mortgage insurers to whom you apply, or may apply, for finance;
• National Lending Group Pty Ltd, our licensee and aggregator, through whom we access lender panels and submit loan applications;
• credit reporting bodies (see section 5);
• valuers, conveyancers, solicitors, accountants and other professionals involved in your transaction, with your consent;
• referral partners, where you have been referred to us or where we refer you to them, with your consent;
• our service providers, including IT providers, loan processing and administration services, document storage providers and compliance consultants;
• our professional advisers, including lawyers, auditors and insurers;
• government agencies, regulators (such as ASIC and AUSTRAC), courts and external dispute resolution schemes, where required or authorised by law; and
• anyone else you authorise us to disclose it to.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Overseas disclosure

Some of our service providers (for example, cloud storage or software providers) may store or process information overseas. Where we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles it in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

5. Credit information and credit reporting

As part of providing credit assistance, we may collect and handle credit information and credit eligibility information. With your consent, we (or the lenders you apply to) may obtain credit reports about you from credit reporting bodies, including:

• Equifax — www.equifax.com.au
• Experian — www.experian.com.au
• illion — www.illion.com.au

Each credit reporting body has its own policy about how it manages credit information, available on its website. You have the right to:

• request access to the credit information a credit reporting body holds about you;
• request correction of inaccurate credit information;
• ask a credit reporting body not to use your credit information for pre-screening of direct marketing by credit providers; and
• ask a credit reporting body not to use or disclose your credit information if you believe you have been, or are likely to be, a victim of fraud (a "ban period").

6. Direct marketing

From time to time, we may use your personal information to tell you about products, services or offers we believe may interest you, including loan health checks, rate reviews and refinancing opportunities. We will only do this where permitted by law and where you have not opted out.

You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in our emails or by contacting us using the details in section 11. We will not use your credit eligibility information for direct marketing.

7. How we hold and protect your information

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These steps include secure electronic storage systems, access controls, password protection and secure destruction of documents no longer required.

We are required by law to retain certain records (including loan application records) for at least seven years. When your personal information is no longer needed for any purpose for which it may be used or disclosed, and we are no longer required to retain it, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

While we take security seriously, no method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Notifiable data breaches

If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act.

9. Our website and cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies, including Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, to improve your browsing experience, remember your preferences and analyse website traffic. Cookies do not generally identify you personally. You can configure your browser to reject cookies, although this may affect the functionality of our website. Information you enter into our online calculators is used to display estimates in your browser and is not treated as a loan application.

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites and encourage you to review their privacy policies.

10. Accessing and correcting your information

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if you believe it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. To make a request, contact us using the details in section 11.

We will respond to access requests within a reasonable period (usually within 30 days). We will not charge you for making a request, although we may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of retrieving and supplying the information. In some circumstances, we may be permitted by law to refuse access, in which case we will give you written reasons.

11. How to contact us or make a complaint

If you have a question about this Privacy Policy, wish to access or correct your information, or believe we have breached your privacy, please contact us:

We take complaints seriously and will acknowledge your complaint promptly, investigate it, and respond to you, generally within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may escalate your complaint to:

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. The current version will always be available on our website, and the "last updated" date at the top of this page will indicate when it was last revised.

Zac Al-Hasani (Credit Representative Number 578743) is an authorised credit representative of National Lending Group Pty Ltd (Australian Credit Licence 412778).