Privacy notice

Your privacy is important to ClearBank ("ClearBank", "we", "us" and "our"). We are committed to protecting your personal data and being transparent about the personal data we hold and use and, wherever possible, giving you control over how we use your personal data.

Privacy and data protection are an integral part of our systems and services. ClearBank is ISO 27001 certified and maintains a number of security measures to protect your personal data. These include data access controls with respect to ClearBank personnel and ClearBank customers including two factor authentication, encryption of confidential and personal data, monitoring, data loss prevention controls and IT security policies. Your personal data is backed up in different locations and audit logs record user and system activities, exceptions, and information security events. Our personnel undergo regular data protection training and are required to adhere to data protection, confidentiality, and IT security policies and our third party service providers are bound by contractual obligations with regards to data protection, confidentiality, and IT security.

The following serves as our notice at collection of personal data in accordance with applicable law.

We use your personal data to:

• operate our business, the ClearBank Website, the ClearBank Portal, and the ClearBank API; the operation of the ClearBank Website may require the collection of personal data through the use of Cookies. What cookies we collect and how we use this information is outlined in our Cookie Policy.
• manage security, risk and crime prevention for us and our customers;
• improve the ClearBank Products, ClearBank Portal, ClearBank API, ClearBank Website, customer relationships and experiences, including through the use of data analytics;
• market our products and services, including by recommending other services that may be of interest to you;
• perform any agreement we have entered into with a Related Entity or a customer or otherwise as necessary in the provision of the ClearBank Products, including to process a transaction;
• provide services that your employer, or a business that you are associated with or with whom you are contracted to, provides to us;
• comply with any applicable law or regulation; and/or
• for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or a third party. These legitimate interests include the purposes identified in the table below at paragraph 5.7 but also include other commercial interests and our internal administrative purposes. Where we rely on legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing your personal data, we will put in place appropriate safeguards to protect your data and to ensure that your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms are not overridden by those legitimate interests.
• fulfill a purpose for which we have your consent which may be obtained for us by a Related Entity;
• comply with applicable law; carry out an action of substantial public interest because of the law; and/or
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We retain each category of Personal Information that we collect for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in our Privacy Policy, including to satisfy legal or reporting requirements.

We do not “sell” or “share” personal data as those terms are defined under applicable law, and as indicated for each relevant category of personal data above.

This notice applies to:

• any individual associated with a customer or prospective customer of ClearBank which includes partners, directors, shareholders, members, UBOs and other beneficial owners, company secretaries, trustees, members, MLROs, nominated officers, individuals identified in source of wealth documents, contractors, representatives, employees, certifiers and any other individuals identified in documents provided by a customer or prospective customer to us or identified in searches carried out by us as part of the customer onboarding process;
• anyone whose personal data we process in connection with the provision, or possible provision, of products and services by us to our customers, including as a result of communications and interactions with us, through the use of our products and services directly or indirectly (including processing payments) and as necessary in order to enable us to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (for example by carrying out verification, anti-money laundering, and sanctions checks). Such individuals include customers of our customers, account holders, debtors, creditors, payees and payers and anyone identified within a transaction;
• anyone whose personal data we process in connection with the provisions, or possible provision, of products and services to us. Such individuals include employees, contractors and representatives of our suppliers, external advisers, financial service companies and intermediaries we work with.

Please read this notice carefully. Among other things, it explains:

• What personal data we may collect about you in connection with: (i) our delivery of, and your use of our website (including cookie data), software, systems and the provision of our transactional and agency products and services (including use of the ClearBank Portal and ClearBank API) together the “ClearBank Products"; and (ii) any related interaction between you and us;
• How and why we process your personal data and the lawful basis or bases by which we process your personal data and other important information, such as how long we retain your personal data and who we share your personal data with; and
• Your rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you.

We may collect, use, disclose and store information about you when:

• you interact or use the ClearBank website at www.clear.bank (“ClearBank Website”), the ClearBank Portal and/or the ClearBank API;
• you correspond with us;
• you register for, or use any of, the ClearBank Products including indirectly through a customer of ours and as a result of making or receiving a payment that is processed by us;
• your employer or a business that you are associated with, or with whom you are contracted to, registers for or uses any of the ClearBank Products (a “Related Entity”);
• your employer or a business that you are associated with, or with whom you are contracted to, provides services to us;
• we carry out ongoing diligence, monitoring and screening, or respond to an external inquiry, in respect of anti-money laundering, politically important persons, source of wealth, fraud, sanctions and other crimes;
• we process guarantee and indemnity claims;
• we enforce our rights including our right to be paid;
• you report an error in, or request technical support for, the ClearBank Portal or ClearBank API or generally request any customer care support or we otherwise investigate an incident;
• you make a complaint or a data request;
• you provide data for other legal and regulatory purposes or we otherwise process personal data to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; and/or
• you, or your employer, provides products or services to us.

This notice is intended to be communicated to you in a concise, transparent, intelligible, and easily accessible manner, but we appreciate that you may have queries or want to seek clarification as to its terms. If so, please contact us (using the details set out at paragraph 2 below) and we will endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

We may make changes to this notice from time to time, including as may be necessary or prudent to reflect any changes in the ways in which we process personal data (including as a result of any new ClearBank Products that we may introduce from time to time) or any changes in data protection laws. Any changes and updates to this notice will be posted on the ClearBank Website (www.clear.bank). Please check this notice regularly so that you are aware of any changes.

For the purposes of data protection laws, ClearBank Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 09736376 whose registered office is at Borough Yards, 13 Dirty Lane, London, England, SE1 9PA and which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register number: 754568) usually operates as an independent data controller. For some processing activities required in the provision of the ClearBank Products, we may be a joint controller with our customer which might be a Related Entity. In other activities, we may be a processor, acting on the specific instructions of a customer or third party which might be a Related Entity.

For further information regarding when we process your personal data as a joint controller and with whom, or as a processor, please contact us. For information regarding how a Related Entity processes your personal data, please contact that relevant Related Entity.

If you have any queries regarding this notice or the way in which we process your personal data, please contact us at:

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44(0) 203 111 2328
Address: Data Protection Officer
ClearBank
Borough Yards
13 Dirty Lane
London SE1 9PA

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes or if you become aware that any personal data that we hold is not accurate.

4.1 The type of personal data we process may include (as applicable) the following:

Information about why we process, and the lawful basis upon which we rely to process, the above personal data is set out in the table at paragraph 5 below.

4.2 We may process special categories of personal data (also known as sensitive personal data) including details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. This data may be transferred to us without our knowledge including in a payment reference or free text field or may be obtained by us for the purposes of our money laundering and verification checks (for example, within data that reveals political opinions).

Some of this information is “sensitive personal information” under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those that are exempt from the Right to Limit the Use or Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information under the CCPA.

4.3 We may process information about criminal convictions and offences including terrorist offences and fraudulent activity. Such information is recorded by us and may be shared with financial crime prevention agencies, law enforcement agencies, regulators, and other financial institutions.

4.4 We may process other confidential and sensitive information relating to individuals that is passed to us by our customers such as information relating to individuals who are identified as vulnerable or at risk from potential harm and who need to be opted out of Confirmation of Payee (CoP).

4.5 We may collect personal data from you directly and we may also obtain personal data from third parties or public sources including the following:

4.5.1 A Related Entity or a customer of ours;

4.5.2 Third parties engaged by a Related Entity or a customer of ours;

4.5.3 Financial Institutions, payment service providers, payment system operators (e.g. Faster Payments, CHAPS, BACS), intermediaries, other financial services companies (to (amongst other things) provide the ClearBank Products, process a payment and prevent, detect and prosecute fraudulent and criminal activity) and external advisers;

4.5.4 LexisNexis (a third party company engaged by us to carry out identification and money laundering checks);

4.5.5 Credit reference agencies;

4.5.6 Law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies;

4.5.7 Debt collection agencies and bailiffs;

4.5.8 Regulatory and government bodies such as the Prudential Regulation Authority, Financial Conduct Authority, HM Revenue and Customs, the Bank of England, National Crime Agency;

4.5.9 Companies House;

4.5.10 Public registers;

4.5.11 Third party websites; or

4.5.12 External legal counsel and other professional advisers.

5.1 We use your personal data for a number of purposes but only where we are allowed to by the law.

5.2 We may process your personal data in any circumstances where such processing is necessary:

5.2.1 in order to perform any agreement we have entered into with a Related Entity or a customer or otherwise as necessary in the provision of the ClearBank Products, including to process a transaction;

5.2.2 in order to receive services that your employer, or a business that you are associated with or with whom you are contracted to, provides to us;

5.2.3 to comply with any applicable law or regulation; and/or

5.2.4 for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or a third party. These legitimate interests include the purposes identified in the table below at paragraph 5.7 but also include other commercial interests and our internal administrative purposes. Where we rely on legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing your personal data, we will put in place appropriate safeguards to protect your data and to ensure that your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms are not overridden by those legitimate interests.

5.3 We may also process your personal data where we have your consent which may be obtained for us by a Related Entity. Where we rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time and if you wish to do so, you should contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact details set out in paragraph 2 above. Where we obtain your consent to send you marketing communications, you can unsubscribe by following the unsubscribe link within the communication. Where marketing consent is gained through the acceptance of Cookies, this will need to be managed through the cookie preferences centre on our website. The withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before withdrawal or the lawfulness of processing based on other lawful grounds.

5.4 We may process special categories of personal data and data relating to criminal convictions and offences where:

5.4.1 we have your explicit consent;

5.4.2 the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest because of the law; and/or

5.4.3 the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

5.5 We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

5.6 We may process your personal data ourselves or in conjunction with our third-party service providers in accordance with paragraph 7.

5.7 Information about the purposes for which we use your personal data, the types of personal data we process to achieve these purposes, and the lawful basis by which we process it, is set out in the table below:

5.8 We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

5.9 If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you (which may be by way of update to this notice) and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

5.10 Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.

6.1 Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of an agreement we have with you or a Related Entity, and you fail to provide that data when requested (or fail to consent to the processing of that data, if necessary), we may not be able to perform the agreement or arrangement we have or are trying to enter into with a Related Entity.

7.1 We will not share any of your personal data with third parties except as set out in this paragraph 7 or otherwise notified to you or agreed between you and us from time to time.

7.2 We may share personal data with our board members, leadership team members, group companies (including our subsidiaries, ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries) and partnered companies for the purposes outlined in this notice. We may also share personal data with third party service providers who we engage to provide services which facilitate our business, and we may need to share personal data with other third parties in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. In 7.3 below, is a list of specific third parties and categories of third parties with whom we may share your personal data. We may also share your personal data with third parties who provide similar services to those specified in 73 or third parties who provide replacement or substitute services for those listed.

7.3

7.4 We ensure that any third party engaged by us who processes your personal data in connection with the purposes listed in paragraph 5 does so under an agreement with us and has policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance with data protection laws.

7.5 For any third parties that are based, or process data, outside of the UK and the EEA, we engage such third parties in accordance with paragraph 8 below.

7.6 We will remain the controller responsible for the processing of your personal data notwithstanding that third parties may operate as a joint controller with us. For some processing activities we may act as a processor for a third party and, in such circumstances, the third party will be responsible for providing you with the processing information required under data protection laws.

7.7 We may share your personal information with third parties where we are required to do so by law or regulation (such as in connection with an investigation of fraud or other legal enquiry) or in connection with other legal proceedings (including where we believe that your actions violate applicable laws or any agreement with us).

7.8 In the event that our business or any part of it is sold or integrated with another business, your details may be disclosed to our advisers and those of any prospective purchaser and will be passed to the new owners of the business.

8.1 From time to time, it may be necessary for us to transfer your information internationally including to fulfil your request, process a transaction, or otherwise as required in the provision of the ClearBank Products. In particular, your information may be transferred to and/or stored on the servers of third parties identified in paragraph 7 which are based outside of the UK and the EEA.

8.2 However, we will not transfer your personal data outside of the UK and the EEA unless:

8.2.1 such transfer is to a country or jurisdiction which has been approved pursuant to data protection laws as having an adequate level of protection;

8.2.2 appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with data protection laws. These safeguards can include the use of standard contractual clauses or binding corporate rules;

8.2.3 any data importer provides us with relevant sources and information relating to the destination country or territory and the laws applicable to the transfer in that destination country in order to substantiate the matters set out in 8.2.1; or

8.2.4 the transfer is otherwise allowed under data protection laws (including where we have consent, the transfer is necessary for important reasons of public interest, is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject).

8.3 We will ensure that where your personal data is transferred outside of the UK and the EEA, the data importer will be contractually obliged to:

(a) ensure your personal data is afforded the same level of protection as would be afforded to it within the EEA; and

(b) keep us informed of any development affecting or likely to affect the level of protection your personal data receives in the importer’s country.

9.1 Subject to any conditions and requirements set out in data protection laws, you may have some, or all, of the following rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you:

9.1.1 the right to request a copy of your personal data held by us;

9.1.2 the right to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data held by us;

9.1.3 the right to request that we erase personal data we hold about you;

9.1.4 the right to request that we restrict the processing of your data;

9.1.5 the right to have your personal data transferred to another organisation;

9.1.6 the right to object to certain types of processing of your personal data by us; and

9.2 the right to complain (please see paragraph 13 of this notice). PLEASE NOTE that these rights are not absolute in all situations and may be subject to conditions and provisions set out in data protection laws. We cannot, therefore, guarantee that we will be able to honour any request from you in connection with the rights set out above. (For example, even if you request that we delete your personal data, we may be required by law to retain some personal data for accounting and record keeping purposes or in order that we comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.)

9.3 As stated in our Notice at Collection, we do not "sell" and "share" (as such terms are defined in the CCPA) personal data. We do not knowingly sell or share personal data about individuals who are under the age of 16.

9.4 To protect your privacy, we may verify your identity by matching personal data that you submit with your requests with information that we maintain on our systems. Where applicable, we will use the requested information for verification purposes only. Please note that we may decline a request where we are unable to verify your identity.

9.5 If you are a resident of California, Colorado, or Connecticut you may authorize someone to submit a data subject request on your behalf (an "authorized agent"). An authorized agent will need to demonstrate that you've authorized them to act on your behalf, unless you have provided the agent with power of attorney pursuant to applicable probate law. Depending on the evidence provided, we may also contact you to verify your identity with us or request confirmation from you that the agent is authorized to submit the request on your behalf.

9.6 If you exercise any of the foregoing rights, we will not discriminate against you, including by denying access to our products or services or restricting your access to products or services of a certain quality of price level.

9.7 For further information, or to exercise any particular right, please contact us at [email protected].

10.1 As a minimum, we need to store your personal data for as long as is necessary to enable us to fulfil the purpose for which it is processed, including to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations (e.g. relating to record keeping) and to exercise or defend any legal claims.

10.2 To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of personal data; the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of personal data; the purpose for which we use the personal data; whether we can achieve the purposes through other means; and the applicable legal requirements.

10.3 We maintain and implement a data retention policy and will delete personal data in accordance with this.

10.4 If we de-identify data, we will maintain and use the data in de-identified form and not attempt to re-identify the data except as required or permitted by law, and we will require any recipient of de-identified data to adhere to similar restrictions.

• For as long as we do store your data, we follow generally accepted industry standards and maintain reasonable safeguards to attempt to ensure the security, integrity, and privacy of the information you have provided. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. We have ISO 27001:2013, ISAE3402 certification, or similar best practice security controls in place.

10.5 It is important that you keep secure and confidential any login credentials that you have for the ClearBank Website and/or ClearBank Portal. You are responsible for maintaining the security and confidentiality of such login credentials. You should notify us promptly if you become aware that the security or confidentiality of your login credentials is compromised.

10.6 We will notify you without undue delay in accordance with the requirements of data protection laws, if we have reason to believe that there has been a personal data breach by us which could adversely affect your rights and freedoms and we are required by law to notify you.

11.1 The ClearBank Website may link or redirect to other websites, social media accounts or other content which is not under our control. Such links or redirections are not endorsements of such websites or representation of our affiliation with them in any way and such third party websites are outside the scope of this notice.

11.2 If you access such third party websites, please ensure that you are satisfied with their respective privacy policies before you provide them with any personal data. We cannot be held responsible for the activities, privacy policies or levels of privacy compliance of any website operated by any third party.

12.1 The ClearBank Website uses some cookies as detailed in the Cookie Policy.

13.1 We take our data protection obligations seriously. If you have any questions or complaints about this notice or the way that we handle your personal data, we would appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns in the first instance before you approach the relevant data protection authority. Please contact us using the details provided in paragraph 2 above.

13.2 You have the right to make a complaint at any time to any relevant supervisory authority for data protection issues, including, in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) (www.ico.org.uk).