Privacy Policy
Information on Your Right to Privacy
The Farmers & Merchants State Bank values your loyalty and trust. The confidentiality and security of your financial and personal information is essential to our business. Our Consumer Privacy Notice is designed to provide detailed information regarding our collection, handling, and safeguarding of your personal and financial information. As used in this notice, "we", "our" and "us" mean The Farmers & Merchants State Bank. Use of the word "you" and "your" refer to our customers. This Privacy Notice is for our consumer customers who have a continuing relationship with us, such as a:
- Deposit Account
- Loan Account
- Credit Card
- Safe Deposit Box
In this notice we will explain what information we collect and what information we share with other entities. We will tell you what your rights are, and how you can exercise them.
THE INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT
Nonpublic personal information is information about you that we collect in connection with providing a financial product or service to you. Nonpublic personal information does not include information that is available from public sources, such as telephone directories or public records.
We collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources:
- Information we receive from you on applications or other forms
- Information about your transactions with us
- Information about your transactions with our affiliates
- Information about your transactions with nonaffiliated third parties
- Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency
We collect and use this personal information to deliver quality financial products and services to you. The personal information you share with us enables us to:
- Accurately identify you
- Protect and administer your records and accounts
- Process your requests
- Improve our customer service
- Comply with applicable laws and regulations
- Identify additional financial products and services that may be of value to you.
INFORMATION CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY
We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those employees with a business need to know that information to provide products or services to you. Access to customer information may be granted to resolve questions or inquiries, for internal security or fraud prevention, to provide products and services, or to protect or enforce customer rights. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your nonpublic personal information.
INFORMATION SHARING WITH NONAFFILIATED THIRD PARTIES
A nonaffiliated third party is a company that is not an affiliate of ours. We will not disclose nonpublic personal information about customers or former customers to anyone except as disclosed in this notice, and as permitted or required by law.
Following are some specific instances when your nonpublic personal information may be disclosed to nonaffiliated third parties as permitted or required by law.
- With your consent or authorization or at your request
- To assist in completion of transactions initiated by you
- To companies that perform services for us in connection with administering, processing, and servicing your account(s)
- To consumer reporting agencies
- For purposes of fraud prevention, security or risk control
- To resolve disputes or inquiries you may have regarding your account
- Pursuant to audits or sales or transfer of your accounts
- To comply with federal, state, or local laws, rules and other legal and regulatory requirements
When disclosure is required by law, such as pursuant to a court order, legal process, government agency examination, investigation or to protect or enforce your rights
INFORMATION SHARING WITH MARKETING SERVICE PROVIDERS AND JOINT MARKETERS
We may disclose nonpublic personal information to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial service providers, such as insurance companies with whom we have joint marketing agreements. We may disclose information about you in order to provide opportunities for additional products and services that may be of value to you.
We may disclose the following information to companies that provide marketing services on our behalf:
- Nonpublic personal information we receive from you on an application or other forms, such as name, address, and email address.
- Nonpublic personal information about your transactions with us, such as types of accounts.
We may disclose the following information to other financial service providers with whom we have joint marketing agreements:
- Nonpublic personal information we receive from you on an application or other forms, such as name, address, email address, and social security number.
- Nonpublic personal information about your transactions with us, such as types of accounts.
Federal law allows us to disclose the above information with those companies performing marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements. These parties must contractually agree to safeguard and protect the confidentiality of your nonpublic personal information and only use it to perform the services agreed upon. You do not have a right to opt out of disclosure of this information.
INFORMATION SHARING WITH AFFILIATES
An affiliate is another company who is part of our corporate family. Our affiliate is FM Investment Services, a financial service provider of brokerage and investment services.
We may disclose nonpublic personal information about you to our affiliate to provide information about additional products and services that may be of value to you. Under the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you may instruct us not to share or disclose certain nonpublic personal information with our affiliate.
Here are the kinds of nonpublic personal information we may disclose to our affiliate:
1. Information from our account records regarding your transactions and experience with us, such as
- Name and Address
- Account balances and activity
- Types of Accounts
- Deposit history
- Payment history
- Parties to the transaction
You do not have a right to opt out or prevent the disclosure of this information.
2. Other information – You Have a Choice
We also may share additional information about you or your account with our affiliate. This would include nonpublic personal information we receive from you on an application, in other forms or from credit reporting agencies, such as
- Name and Address
- Social Security Number
- Assets
- Income
- Credit History
You may direct us not to disclose to our affiliate, information in item #2 that does not relate solely to our experiences or transactions with your or your account by "opting out" as described in the following section. By opting out, you are telling us do not disclose this information.
YOUR RIGHT TO BLOCK THE DISCLOSURE OF YOUR NONPUBLIC PERSONAL INFORMATION
We are permitted to disclose nonpublic personal information about our transactions and experiences with you to our affiliate. We may also disclose other nonpublic personal information about you to our affiliate (non-experience information, that is information received from you in applications, on other forms, or from a credit reporting agency).
If you prefer that we not disclose the other nonpublic personal information about you to our affiliate, you may opt out of those disclosures. By opting out, you are directing us not to make those disclosures (other than disclosures permitted by law).
If you wish to opt out of disclosure, you may do so by either of the following methods:
- Complete and return the Privacy Opt Out form.
- Call this toll free number: (800) 451-7843 or locally call, (419) 446-2501. Ask for the CIF Department.
Your decision to block the disclosure of your other nonpublic personal information will apply to all products and services you receive from us.
If you have a joint account, opt out instructions given by one account owner will affect all account owners on the account.
October 2009
