Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy contains important information about how AusFunds Management Limited (“AusFunds”, “we”, “us” or “our”) manages your personal information.

The document has been developed using a “layered” format which means you can therefore read as much or as little as you like and can find what you need quicker by going to the relevant section heading (if reading in hardcopy).
 

About this Policy

This Policy describes the implementation of AusFunds’ obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 and meets the requirements of Australian Privacy Principle 1 (APP 1).
 

Our approach to Privacy

AusFunds is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and aims to comply at all times with the privacy laws. We aim to respect our customers’ right to privacy and value the confidence our customers place in us to safeguard their personal information.

AusFunds is an “APP entity” under the Privacy Act 1988 because it collects personal information, including tax file numbers, and is a reporting entity under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (the anti-money laundering laws). As a reporting entity under the anti-money laundering laws, we have obligations to collect personal information from customers. The collection, use, storage and disclosure of that personal information is subject to the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988.
 

Collection

AusFunds collects, holds and uses personal information from its customers for the purposes of complying with our regulatory obligations and for providing financial services and products to customers and successfully performing its other business functions as outlined below.

We collect personal information that includes details such as your:

  • Name;
  • Contact details (including postal and email addresses and phone and fax numbers);
  • Date of birth;
  • Tax file number;
  • Employment details;
  • Financial information such as information about the financial products and services you acquire from or through us; and
  • Visa information (if you are migrating under the 188 visa, the date the visa is granted)

We only collect personal information by fair and lawful means, and usually collect it directly from you. Your name and initial contacts may be collected from referrals such as your migration agent.

We gather personal information from written documents (such as an application form or customer questionnaire), from the website or verbally when we speak to our customers.

Wherever practical, we provide our Privacy Statement to new customers and take care to seek consent from them before we record their personal information.

A customer may have the option not to identify themselves or to use a pseudonym to retain anonymity where the reasons for collecting their information are still able to be achieved. However, in many circumstances this will not be possible, particularly because of the anti-money laundering laws.

If a customer does not provide all the information we require we may not be able to establish and administer an account for them to provide a financial service or issue or arrange for the issue of a financial product to them. In some cases, we may be required by obligations under the anti-money laundering laws to collect additional personal information on an application or at a later time.

When you visit our website, either we or our internet service provider will record information in relation to your visit for statistical purposes. The information collected will be your computer’s IP address, top level domain name, type of browser, and the date and time you accessed the webpage.

We use cookies on our website in order to make it easier to use by storing information about your preferences. Cookies are very small text files that a website can transfer to the hard drive of a computer which accesses it for keeping a record of that computer. We may keep a record of which parts of our website you visited and whether you visited our website from a banner advertisement on another website. This enables you to take full advantage of our services when you access our website and enables us to market our services most effectively.

We generally do not collect Sensitive information and will only collect Sensitive information about a customer with the express consent of the customer or where the collection is compelled by law. Sensitive information is information about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of any political, professional or trade association, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record or health.
 

Use and disclosure

We only use personal information for the purpose for which it was provided to us, that is for the purposes of providing financial services and products to you, or for related purposes that would not reasonably require specific permission from our customers.

If unsolicited information is received, we will assess whether the information could have been collected in accordance with this Policy and if it could not have been collected we will destroy or de-identify it.

Our business functions

  1. Provision of financial services
  2. As a Licensee, AusFunds provides financial products and services authorised under our AFSL, including issuing interests in and operating regulated managed funds. AusFunds assists visa applicants in gaining Australian residency under the Business Innovation and Investment Visa (188/888 subclass) and provides them with options for making complying investments under the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) regime.
  3. For certain financial products, we are required by law to obtain a Tax File Number (TFN) from customers. The handling of TFNs is regulated under the Privacy Act and AusFunds is committed to maintaining the security of its customers’ TFNs in accordance with the Tax File Number Guidelines.
    • Handling complaints
  4. We may need to collect additional personal information from our customers in the process of handling a complaint from them. If that is necessary, we will collect that information from them over the phone or from correspondence and we will let the customer know at the time that we are collecting the personal information for the purposes of resolving their complaint.
    • Sending out a newsletter and/or other direct marketing
  5. We will use the personal information we collect from our customers to provide them with updated information about our range of products and services. Customers may choose not to receive any further direct marketing communications at any time by notifying us of this choice.

Disclosure of personal information – generally

AusFunds does not sell, rent or trade personal information to or with any other organisations, but personal information may be used by other related entities. For example, we may wish to inform our customers of a new financial product available from a related entity that we expect to be of interest to them. Naturally, we respect the wishes of our customers not to be informed of these promotions.

We may disclose a customer’s personal information to:

  • other persons to enable us to administer the financial products or financial services we provide to customers, including administrators, lawyers or auditors, entities providing finance, insurance, maintenance, registration and other services;
  • third parties the customer authorises to act on their behalf; and
  • government agencies such as the ATO, ASIC and AUSTRAC under corporations, taxation, social security, or anti-money laundering laws.

In particular we have “Know Your Customer” obligations under the anti-money laundering laws. If certain thresholds are met during a transaction with a customer, AusFunds is obliged to disclose that information to AUSTRAC.

If the investment is related to SIV, we may also need to provide information to the Department of Immigration when requested.

When we disclose a customer’s information to third parties, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that those third parties are in full compliance with the Privacy Act.
 

Disclosure to overseas recipients

When collecting a customer’s personal information, we will generally notify the customer of any other overseas recipients to whom we may likely disclose their personal information. Before disclosing the customer’s personal information to an overseas recipient, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to that information. If we cannot ensure this, we will not disclose the customer’s personal information without their consent.
 

Storage and security

AusFunds takes reasonable steps to keep the personal information that it holds about you secure. Our records and the personal information of customers are stored by us electronically on our computer systems which are maintained by us and secured by password protections and in paper files secured by physical access restrictions.

We have taken all reasonable measures to protect the information in our records. Access to personal information within AusFunds is strictly limited to prevent any loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure. Our audit program includes a review of the security and risk management measures around security of information.

If a customer receives more than one financial product or financial service from us, we will link the personal information about the customer between those products and services.

We will de-identify or dispose of a customer’s personal information in a secure manner when it is no longer required, not contained in a Commonwealth record and is not legally required to be retained.
 

Access and correction

A customer may request access to their personal information held in our records by contacting our Privacy Officer and we will use our best endeavours to provide the customer with the requested information in a timely manner. We will not unreasonably withhold access but may not be able to provide the customer with access in some circumstances. These include circumstances where:

  • providing access would pose a serious threat to any individual;
  • providing access would jeopardise the privacy of other individuals;
  • where the customer makes an unreasonable request for access for the purpose of creating a nuisance;
  • the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between us and the customer, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings;
  • providing access would unreasonably prejudice our commercial dealings with the customer;
  • providing access would be unlawful;
  • denying access is required or authorised by or under law; or
  • providing access would jeopardise an investigation of possible unlawful activity.

In circumstances where we have refused access to a customer’s personal information in the manner requested by the customer, we will:

  • take all reasonable steps to give access in some other way that meets the customer’s needs; and
  • provide a written notice which sets out the reasons for refusal, the mechanism to complain about the refusal and any other matters prescribed by law.

We may seek reimbursement for providing access to this information where expenses were incurred in retrieving and collating the requested information.

Seeking correction of personal information

While we use our best endeavours to ensure the quality of our records, and to maintain the accuracy, currency and completeness of all personal information collected, we rely on the accuracy of the personal information provided to us and we request and appreciate our customers’ assistance in maintaining the quality of our records by contacting us if any personal information is found to be inaccurate or incomplete.

A customer can request that their personal information be updated by contacting our Privacy Officer.

In dealing with a customer’s request, we will provide a response within 30 days after the request is made.

We will make the changes to the customer’s personal information unless there is a sound reason not to make the changes. We will inform the customer when the changes have been made and ask whether the customer wishes us to inform any third party of the correction.

In circumstances where we have refused to correct a customer’s personal information, we will give the customer written notice setting out:

  • the reasons for refusal;
  • the mechanism available to complain about the refusal;
  • the customer’s right to request a statement to be associated with the personal information; and
  • any other matters prescribed by law.

When we correct personal information about a customer that has previously been disclosed to a third party, upon the customer’s request we will take all reasonable steps to notify that third party of the correction where it is not impractical or unlawful to do so.
 

Privacy concerns or complaints

A customer can contact our Privacy Officer to request further information about anything discussed in this Privacy Policy.

A customer is entitled to lodge a complaint with us if they have a complaint about how we deal with their personal information or if they believe that we, or one of our contractors, have breached the Australian Privacy Principles. The customer must tell us about their complaint first, so we ask the customer to please telephone the Privacy Officer to discuss their complaint. We may ask the customer to lodge their complaint in writing.

We continually strive to ensure our customers are satisfied and will use our best endeavours to resolve complaints in a timely manner. We will acknowledge receipt of a customer’s complaint within 7 days and provide a response to their complaint within 30 days.

Where a customer’s complaint is not resolved to their satisfaction within a reasonable time, we will refer them to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Contact details for the OAIC can be found at www.privacy.gov.au where you can also find more information about privacy in general.
 

Contacting us

AusFunds’ Privacy Officer is Ivan Wong, one of our Responsible Managers who is contracted to supervise our provision of financial services in compliance with our AFSL licence. He owns the Policy and is responsible for testing its effectiveness, and for reviewing and updating it. The Policy is generally updated, if required, on an annual basis, but the Privacy Officer will also update the Policy if a material issue with the Policy is detected as a consequence of the results of the testing process or of a privacy complaint.

Our Privacy Officer may be contacted as follows:

  • The Privacy Officer
    AusFunds Management Limited
    GPO Box 3364
    Sydney NSW 2001
  • Phone: +612 8318 8300
    Fax:      +612 8088 6333
    Email:  privacy@ausfunds.com.au

This Privacy Policy is easily available to our customers free of charge and in hard copy or electronically by requesting it from our Privacy Officer or via our website.
 

Privacy Statement

AusFunds Management Limited provides financial products and services authorised under its AFSL, including issuing interests in and operating regulated managed funds. For this purpose, we collect, hold and use personal information and we are committed to maintaining the security of our customers’ personal information in accordance with the privacy laws.

This Privacy Statement is a summary of our Privacy Policy and the way we manage personal information which is protected under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

With your consent, we collect your personal information for the primary purpose of establishing and administering financial products for and delivering financial services to you. We may also use your personal information for related purposes such as informing you about changes in product features, marketing new products and other topical information. We aim to collect your personal information in a fair and lawful manner, which is not unreasonably intrusive. We will not usually collect sensitive information and will only do so where we have your consent.

We may disclose your information to:

  • other persons to enable us to administer your financial products and deliver financial services to you, including administrators, lawyers or auditors, entities providing finance, insurance,  maintenance, registration and other services;
  • third parties you authorise to act on your behalf;  and
  • government agencies such as the ATO, ASIC and AUSTRAC under corporations, taxation, social security, or anti-money laundering laws.

Where we disclose your personal information to any overseas recipient, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to your information. If we cannot ensure this, we will not disclose your personal information without your consent.

If you do not provide all the information we require we may not be able to establish and administer the financial product or deliver the financial service you have requested. In some cases, we may be required by anti-money laundering laws to collect additional information on application or at a later time.

You can find out what personal information we collect and hold, update that information and opt-out of receiving direct marketing information from us by contacting our Privacy Officer via the methods shown below. You can also ask for a copy of our Privacy Policy if you want to know more or obtain it directly from our website. The Privacy Policy also contains information about our complaints process.

How to contact AusFunds directly

  • The Privacy Officer
    AusFunds Management Limited
    GPO Box 3364
    Sydney NSW 2001
  • Phone: +612 8318 8300
    Fax:      +612 8088 6333
    Email:  privacy@ausfunds.com.au