Privacy Policy

WE CARE ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY

Access Bank (Cameroon) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data.

This Privacy Policy seeks to provide you with information about how Access Bank (Cameroon) processes your personal information (including the collection, usage, storage, retention, security, and disposal of your Personal Data).

Access Bank (Cameroon) will only process your information where the Bank has received the information directly from you as a data controller or by our clients where we are processors in accordance with their instructions and in line with the Bank’s obligations and Jurisdictional Data Protection laws that are applicable.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

This Privacy Policy shall be amended or updated from time to time to reflect changes in our practices with respect to the processing of personal data, or changes in applicable data protection regulations.

What constitutes consent?

You consent to our use of your personal information when you (voluntarily) provide us with them to access any of our products online or in any of our banking outlets. You also consent when you sign forms or documents enabling us to provide certain services to you.

The Personal Data we collect

We currently collect and process personal information necessary to open a bank account and render any other banking services as we engage in our normal course of business. This includes the following:

• Personal details such as name, date of birth, family details, gender, ID details, Tax Identification Number (TIN), Social Security Number (SSN), contact information, online identifiers, passport pictures and any other similar information.
• Biometric information comprising of your fingerprints and facial recognition.
• Location and contact data such as postal address, residential address, digital address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial data such as bank account details, card payment details and other electronic or non-electronic payment details.
• Transaction data such as details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have acquired from us.
• Online identifiers such as internet protocol (IP) address, your login identity data, browser type and version, and information about how you use our website, products, and services.
• Information for regulatory compliance and monitoring purposes such as nationality, country of residence, source of funds, details of the origin of your wealth and other documents required for anti-money laundering, combatting the financing of terrorism, and proliferation of weapons for mass destruction which may be necessary to enable us to comply with applicable regulatory reporting requirements.
• Video recordings (CCTV footage).
• The Bank may also obtain your personal data from third parties depending on the products and services we provide to you. This will include trade or transaction counterparts, credit reference agencies, public registers (such as beneficial ownership registers), financial crime screening databases, fraud prevention agencies, and persons or entities instructed by you to provide us with your personal data.

What we use your Personal Data For

Access Bank (Cameroon) will always process your personal data for a specific purpose and process only the personal data relevant to achieving that purpose. Depending on our relationship with you and the products and services that we provide to you, we may process your personal data for the following compatible purposes:

• Account opening.
• Providing products and services including identity verification, transaction processing, cards issuance and keeping adequate records.
• For communication purposes through various mediums such as in person, via phone, SMS, email, and managing any customer complaints.
• Managing our customer and related parties’ relationships including compiling internal reports, managing clients’ files, and conducting risk assessments.
• Carrying out operational and administrative functions including the processing of payments, and access management.
• To study how our customers use our products and services, testing new products and managing our brand.
• When you visit our branches, we use CCTV cameras for security reasons and record keeping purposes.
• For direct marketing of products and services that we think may be of interest to you, our client or prospective client.
• To meet the Bank`s regulatory obligations. This includes compliance checks, transactions monitoring and reporting, making disclosures to, and complying with requests from public authorities, regulators, tax authorities, governmental bodies, or law enforcement agencies, investigating and preventing fraud.
• To administer and protect our business and our website, ensure business continuity, manage complaints, undertake remediation activities, and resolve queries (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data).
• Allowing access to our website and other banking platforms.
• Conduct background checks and maintenance of employee database.

Basis for Processing Information

We shall process your information on the following basis:

• To enter and perform our contractual obligations.
• To comply with our legal obligations.
• For the performance of a statutory duty.
• For the legitimate interest of Access Bank Cameroon and our Data Subjects.
• To satisfy the public interest.

Prior consent has been obtained from data subjects for the use and processing of personal data.

Information We Share

We may share information with other people for any of the reasons provided above. The category of persons who may be entitled to this information may include:

• Any employee of Access Bank Cameroon who may need the information to administer a contract or service we are providing to you.
• Auditors, third-party service providers (local and foreign), agents or independent contractors who assist the Bank to provide customers with a product or service.
• Third parties with accruing legal obligations e.g., trustees and executors, guarantors, anyone holding a power of attorney to operate an account on your behalf and joint account holders.
• Correspondent Banks, Counterparties and Collaborators to process a transaction or service.
• A merchant or a member of a card association where the disclosure is in connection with usage of a card (including Debit card, Credit card and Prepaid Cards).
• Any person authorized to operate your account and to act on your behalf in giving instructions.
• Any person to whom disclosure is permitted or required by local or foreign law.
• Any court of competent jurisdiction, regulator, law enforcement agency, tax authority, or an authority investigating an offence or their agents.
• Any debt collection agency, credit bureau or credit reference agency.
• Money laundering and Terrorism financing related checks, for fraud prevention and detection.

Children

Access Bank (Cameroon) understands and acknowledges the importance of safeguarding children’s privacy, hence, our sites are not intentionally designed for or directed at children under the age of 18. It is our policy never to knowingly collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 18, except as part of an engagement to provide child-categorized account opening services which require parental guardianship.

Data security and integrity

We have implemented reasonable and effective security policies and procedures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, data loss and misuse, alteration, or destruction. To the best of our ability, access to your personal information is limited to those who have a need to know and are required to always maintain the confidentiality of such information. Despite our best efforts and intentions, we acknowledge that security cannot be absolutely guaranteed against all threat actors. Hence, we also make reasonable efforts to retain personal information only for so long:

• as the data subject asks that the information be deleted
• as necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, internal business or policy requirements, or
• the information is necessary to comply with an individual’s request.

Cookies Policy

Cookies are pieces of information that our website and applications transfer to your computer to enable our systems to recognize your browser and tailor the information on our website to your interests.

Access Bank (Cameroon) and our service providers may use cookies to collect information about you so we can provide the experiences you request, recognize your visit, track your interactions, and improve experience with all customers.

Cookies may also be used on our platforms to retain information on the last activities of the user.

This information continues to be accessible by the user the next time he/she visits the website. The web browser quickly uses it to remember the last activity of the user on the website and allows him/her to continue from there without reloading the entire website at every visit. This helps greatly to boost the user's experience on the website in terms of the website's speed over the browser.

Although most browsers automatically accept cookies, you can amend your browser settings to disable cookies. This may however prevent you from fully experiencing the website as it was intended.

The cookies are not stored in a permanent storage, like a database, and so are deleted once the browsers are closed, or can be singled out for deletion by clearing out the browser's data.

How long we keep your information

Access Bank (Cameroon) shall keep your information for as long as it is necessary and relevant to the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we may either delete or anonymize such information, or if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your information and isolate it from further processing.

How we keep your information secure

We have put in place appropriate technical, organizational, and physical security measures to prevent your Personal Data from being lost, altered, used, or accessed in an unauthorized way. In addition, the Bank limits access to your Personal Data to only employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your Personal Data on our instructions and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Access Bank Plc (Cameroon) is compliant with Protection and Information Security Regulations and Requirements. This includes:

• CEMAC Regulation on the Protection of banking services Consumers
• Cameroon’s Law 2010-012 on cybersecurity and cybercrime
• PCI DSS Certification
• ISO 27001:2022 Standard
• ISO 22301:2019 Standard

Rights as a Data Subject

You are entitled to the following rights:

• Right to be informed.
• Right of access to personal data.
• Right to give and withdraw consent.
• Right to amend (rectification).
• Right to blocking, erasure and destruction.
• Right to erasure and destruction
• Right to destruction
• Right to complain.
• Right to prevent processing
• Freedom from automated decision-making.
• Freedom from processing for direct marketing

Available remedies

In the event of a breach of your data protection rights, we will ensure that any damage is addressed promptly. Data subjects can direct their complaints to the Agence Nationale des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (ANTIC), which regulates, controls, and oversees activities linked to the security of electronic communications networks and information systems on behalf of the State.

Time Frame for Remedy

At Access Bank (Cameroon) we are committed to promptly addressing any violations of data subjects' rights. Upon receiving a complaint or becoming aware of a breach, we will acknowledge the issue within 72 hours. We aim to fully resolve all issues within one (1) month. In cases where more time is required due to complexity, we will inform the data subject of the extension and the reasons for it within the initial one-month period.

Automated decision making

We do not engage in automated decision-making as all our processes have human intervention.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our privacy practices, the data we hold regarding you, or would like to exercise any of your rights to your Personal Data, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Address: Boulevard de la Liberte - Rue 1178 Akwa, P. O. Box 6000, Douala,

Email Address: CameroonDataPrivacy@accessbankplc.com

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may modify or update our Privacy Policy from time to time and ask that you regularly check this website to make sure you are familiar with the most recent versions.

By enrolling for our services or entering any contractual arrangements with us, you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.