Privacy Policy

About This Policy

This policy applies to koala financial™ (Koala Financial Pty Ltd ABN 36 685 260 397). Scott Lung (CRN 567904, AFCA Member 114087) and Koala Financial Pty Ltd (CRN 567905, AFCA Member 114127) are Credit Representatives of Purple Circle Financial Services Pty Ltd (ABN 21 611 305 170, ACL 486112).

As a Credit Representative, we operate under the policies and procedures of Purple Circle Financial Services. If you want to understand how Purple Circle manages personal information at the aggregator level, you can review their Privacy Policy at purplecfs.com.au/privacy.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our business, technology or legal obligations. The latest version will always be available on our website.

What Is Personal Information?

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. This includes your name, contact details, date of birth, address, employment details, income, assets, liabilities and any other information that could identify you, whether true or not, and whether held in writing or otherwise.

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information that includes details about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, sexual preferences, criminal record or health information. We handle sensitive information with additional care and will only collect it where you have consented and the information is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities, or where otherwise permitted by law.

Credit information includes details about your credit history, existing credit liabilities, repayment history, any financial hardship arrangements, defaults and eligibility for credit. We collect and use credit information only as permitted under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Credit Reporting Privacy Code.

What Information We Collect

To provide credit assistance and comply with our obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth), Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing legislation where applicable, and other regulatory requirements, we may collect personal information including:

• -Your name, contact details and date of birth
• -Your current and previous addresses, and how long you have lived at each
• -Information about your dependants and household
• -Your employment history and current occupation
• -Your income, expenses, assets and existing debts
• -Your bank account details and proof of earnings
• -Documents used to verify your identity

If you do not provide this information, we may not be able to provide credit assistance or complete your application.

We may also collect your payment information where a fee is payable for our services.

How We Collect Your Information

We collect personal information directly from you wherever possible. This may occur:

• -Through enquiry or contact forms on our website (koalafinancial.com.au)
• -Via email correspondence
• -During phone or video calls
• -Through electronic signature platforms used to complete application documents and disclosures
• -Through our social media channels and online lead generation forms
• -Through third-party referrers who introduce you to us

Where you provide us with information about another person (for example, a co-applicant or guarantor), you must let that person know you have provided their information and direct them to this Privacy Policy.

If we collect information about you from a third party, we will take reasonable steps to make you aware of this, including who provided the information and why.

Dealing with us anonymously: You may make general enquiries about mortgage products, interest rates or our services without identifying yourself where it is lawful and practicable to do so.

Where appropriate and permitted by law, we may also use electronic identity verification services to confirm your identity.

Credit Information

You may authorise us to act as your agent to obtain your credit information from a credit reporting body, such as Equifax or another credit reporting body, on your behalf. We will only do this with your written consent, which is typically obtained as part of our standard client engagement and application forms.

We use credit information only for the purpose of assessing your eligibility for credit products and providing you with appropriate credit assistance.

Where we submit an application to a lender, that lender may also collect, use and disclose your credit information in accordance with its own privacy and credit reporting policy.

Credit Reporting Bodies and Your Rights

The credit reporting bodies we or your lender may deal with include:

• -Equifax (equifax.com.au)
• -illion (illion.com.au)
• -Experian (experian.com.au)

Each credit reporting body has a credit reporting policy on its website explaining how it collects, holds, uses and discloses credit information, along with its contact details.

You have rights in relation to your credit information. You can:

• -Request a free copy of your credit report from a credit reporting body once every 3 months, or after your credit information has been corrected or an application declined
• -Ask a credit reporting body not to use your credit information for direct marketing pre-screening by lenders
• -Ask a credit reporting body to place a ban on the use or disclosure of your credit information if you reasonably believe you have been, or are likely to be, a victim of fraud, including identity fraud
• -Request correction of credit information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading
• -Complain to us, the credit reporting body, the OAIC or AFCA about the handling of your credit information

How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to:

• -Assess your eligibility for loan products and recommend suitable options
• -Assist you to apply for a home loan, investment loan or other credit product
• -Verify your identity and assess your capacity to service a loan
• -Communicate with you about your application and our services
• -Manage our ongoing relationship with you as a client
• -Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• -Send you relevant updates, educational content or information about products and services that are relevant to your enquiries or ongoing relationship with us (see Marketing, below)

We only collect, use and disclose personal information where it is reasonably necessary to provide our services or where required or authorised by law.

Disclosing Your Information

To provide our services, we may need to share your personal information with third parties. These may include:

• -Our aggregator, Purple Circle Financial Services Pty Ltd, for loan submission, compliance and administration purposes
• -Lenders and lessors to whom we submit your application
• -Lenders' mortgage insurers and other loan intermediaries
• -Credit reporting bodies (including Equifax and other credit reporting bodies where applicable), with your consent
• -Valuers, settlement agents, solicitors, accountants and other representatives acting on your behalf
• -Your referees, such as your employer, for verification purposes
• -Referrers who introduced you to us, where appropriate and with your consent where required
• -Guarantors or prospective guarantors of your loan
• -Government and regulatory bodies where required by law
• -Professional advisers and external service providers who assist us in running our business
• -A purchaser or prospective purchaser of our business, subject to confidentiality obligations
• -Any person or organisation to whom you have provided your consent

We will only disclose your information as permitted under the Australian Privacy Principles. We do not sell, trade or rent your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Using AI and Automation

We may use secure software tools, automation platforms and artificial intelligence technologies to help prepare documents, summarise information, improve administrative efficiency and deliver our services.

Where these technologies process personal information, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate contractual, privacy and security protections are in place. We do not use artificial intelligence to make automated lending decisions on your behalf.

Overseas Disclosure

We use third-party technology providers to operate our business, including mortgage CRM and client management systems, electronic signature platforms, email providers, cloud productivity software, analytics tools, automation platforms and secure cloud storage providers.

Some of these providers may store or process personal information outside Australia, including in the United States, the European Union, Singapore and other jurisdictions where those providers or their infrastructure operate.

Where we disclose personal information to overseas recipients, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate privacy and security protections apply. If you would like further details about the overseas service providers we use, please contact us at hello@koalafinancial.com.au.

Marketing

We may use your personal information to send you information about mortgage products, property investment strategies, educational content and services that are relevant to your enquiries or ongoing relationship with us. This may include email communications.

You may opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by:

• -Clicking the unsubscribe link in any email we send you
• -Contacting us directly at hello@koalafinancial.com.au

We will action all opt-out requests promptly and will not charge you for opting out.

Cookies and Website Tracking

Our website uses cookies and third-party tracking technologies, including:

• -Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand how visitors interact with our website, including which pages are most visited
• -Microsoft Clarity to record anonymised website sessions and heatmaps, so we can see where visitors get stuck and improve the site. Anything you type into our calculators or forms is masked before it leaves your browser, so your figures and contact details are never captured in a recording
• -Meta Pixel, which we may use from time to time when we run advertising campaigns, to measure their effectiveness and enable remarketing to people who have visited our website

Cookies are small data files stored on your device when you visit our website. You can configure your browser to refuse cookies or delete them at any time, although this may affect some website functionality.

We may also collect technical information such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, device type and pages visited to improve the performance, security and functionality of our website.

We do not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information without your knowledge.

Your Choices

You can choose not to provide certain personal information to us. However, doing so may limit our ability to provide credit assistance, assess your borrowing needs or submit loan applications on your behalf.

Keeping Your Information Accurate

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up to date. If any of your details change, please let us know so we can update our records. If you believe we hold information about you that is inaccurate or incomplete, you may request a correction (see below).

Protecting Your Information

We take the security of your personal information seriously. We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These include:

• -Secure cloud-based storage systems
• -Confidentiality obligations for contractors and service providers who assist us
• -Appropriate access controls on systems that hold client information
• -Retaining records for as long as required by law or where reasonably necessary for our business and compliance obligations
• -Secure destruction or de-identification of personal information when it is no longer required

Data Breaches

If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm, such as identity theft or significant financial loss, we will notify affected individuals as soon as practicable in accordance with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you and to request corrections where that information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

To make a request, please contact us in writing at hello@koalafinancial.com.au. We will acknowledge your request within 7 business days and fulfil straightforward requests within 14 days. More complex requests will be resolved within 30 days.

We do not charge for lodging a request. If providing access involves significant cost (for example, locating and compiling records), we may charge a reasonable fee, which we will advise you of in advance.

We may decline to provide access in limited circumstances permitted by law, such as where access would unreasonably impact the privacy of another person or is related to ongoing legal proceedings. If we decline, we will provide written reasons and information about how to make a complaint.

Privacy Complaints

If you have a concern or complaint about how we have handled your personal information, credit information, marketing preferences, data security, or a request to access or correct your information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it.

Privacy Officer, Koala Financial Phone: 0418 186 700 Email: hello@koalafinancial.com.au Website: koalafinancial.com.au

We will acknowledge your privacy complaint within 7 business days where practicable and respond in writing within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or we do not respond within 30 days, you may lodge a privacy complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) Phone: 1300 363 992 | Website: www.oaic.gov.au

Complaints and Dispute Resolution

If your complaint relates to our credit assistance, loan recommendations, service, fees, application handling, delays, or another non-privacy issue, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it.

Complaints Officer, Koala Financial Phone: 0418 186 700 Email: hello@koalafinancial.com.au Website: koalafinancial.com.au

We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 business days where practicable and respond in writing within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may escalate your complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which provides external dispute resolution for financial services and credit-related complaints.

Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) Phone: 1800 931 678 | Email: info@afca.org.au | Mail: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001 | Website: www.afca.org.au

koala financial™ is a trademark of Koala Financial Pty Ltd. Scott Lung (CRN 567904) and Koala Financial Pty Ltd (CRN 567905) are Credit Representatives of Purple Circle Financial Services Pty Ltd ABN 21 611 305 170, Australian Credit Licence 486112.