Merchants & Farmers Bank is committed to respecting the individual privacy of consumers. We value the trust you have placed in us to maintain the security and confidentiality of your financial information. Merchants & Farmers Bank promises to use the information about you in a responsible manner and we believe it is important for you to be informed about our efforts to safeguard your privacy. Merchants & Farmers Bank has adopted the following privacy policy to demonstrate this commitment.
Introduction
At Merchants & Farmers Bank, we have no higher priority than the security and privacy of your financial information. This information is essential for us to provide you with the superior customer service that you deserve and we consider it a valuable asset that requires our protection. We only grant access to nonpublic personal information about you to employees, affiliates and service providers in order for them to provide or offer financial products and services. We do not sell your information to outside marketers.
In addition, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to protect your personal information. Merchants & Farmers Bank continually monitors and reviews all of its security protection measures and as improved practices or new technology becomes available, we will adopt those that we believe may improve the security of your confidential financial information.
In the following sections you will find our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of customer information. These policies describe the types of information that are collected, and how and why that information may be shared with others.
Information Collection
The main reason that we collect and retain information about you is to provide the products and services that you request. This nonpublic personal information may be collected from a variety of sources such as the following:
- Information that you provided to us on applications or other Merchants & Farmers Bank forms such as income, social security number, email address, assets or debt information;
- Information about your transaction history with us or our affiliates such as account balances, account activity and usage, and payment history;
- Information that we receive from a credit bureau that includes credit history and employment verification.
Information Use and Sharing
We use and may share nonpublic personal information that we collect about you to accomplish the following:
- To provide you with a product or service that you have requested;
- To protect you by identifying you and preventing unauthorized persons from accessing your information or accounts;
- To provide you with a superior customer service experience;
- To offer you additional financial products or services, from us, our affiliates or other financial services providers, that may be of interest to you;
- To comply with reporting and other legal requirements.
Information Sharing with Third Parties Permitted by Law
We are permitted under the privacy law to share information we collect with certain third parties that are necessary to provide a requested product or service (under “Servicing Arrangements”) or when we have an agreement with a provider of specialized financial services to jointly offer products that enhance our ability to serve your needs (under “Marketing Agreements”). For example, we offer check printing and bill payment under Servicing Arrangements. We currently offer brokerage services and annuities under Marketing Agreement. The companies that we engage for these services are reputable and are under contract with us to maintain your privacy and the confidentiality of your nonpublic personal information. Third parties may also include credit-reporting agencies to which we report information about your transactions with us and as permitted by law to third parties in response to subpoena, court order or other appropriately documented authority. You can authorize us to release your information to third parties on your behalf.
Online Privacy
When you visit our website to view any page or read product information, you do so without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. The types of information that we normally collect and store include:
- Your device’s public IP address,
- The website that referred you to us (if any),
- The type of browser used,
- The page or pages you requested.
Merchants & Farmers Bank and our third-party vendors and service providers may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information on our website. Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features of our website. We do not collect personally-identifiable information such as your name, email address, or phone number via cookies on our website.
We use Google Analytics to collect information about use of our website. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the Services, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics to improve our website. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. For more information, visit the Google Privacy Policy.
There are instances where you may elect to provide us with personal information. If you fill out one of our contact forms or quick applications or if you send us an email, you are transmitting the information that appears to you in the form or message. This will typically include information like your name, mailing address, email address, the kind of request you are making and any other information necessary to fulfill your request. You do not transfer personally identifying information that you do not enter yourself. This information is used internally only for the purpose of fulfilling your request or for contacting you directly and is not sold to any other organization.
When you input nonpublic personal information via one of our Quick Applications or Applications, that information is encrypted by your browser before it is transmitted back to our website. This effectively prevents anyone from intercepting and reading any personal information about you. Encryption is in place when you use your web browser with one of our website application forms and while accessing your account information. Please do not send any nonpublic personal information to us in an email. Encryption may not take place if you send us email, which is not a secure form of communication with us.
Information Integrity
Merchants & Farmers Bank works hard to ensure that our customer’s information is complete and accurate. Your role in this process is to conduct a timely review of all statements, bills and notices that we provide you and to notify us of any discrepancy. Merchants & Farmers Bank occasionally may contact you about our product and service offerings by telephone or e-mail. When we contact you, we do not request any personal information (such as your PIN or password) and limit our inquiries only to the information necessary to identify you as our customer. You may contact us if you have any concerns about the accuracy of your information, our solicitation of your business or this privacy policy.
Conclusion & COPPA
Thank you for the trust you have placed in us. We value your business and we will continue to be committed to your privacy.
As used in this Privacy Policy, “we”, “us”, “our” or “ours” refers to Merchants & Farmers Bank. “You”, “yours” refers to each individual who is one of our customers or former customers who obtained or requested a financial product or service from us. This Privacy Policy applies to consumers who are Merchants & Farmers Bank customers or former customers in the United States, or who are visitors to our website.
Our website does not collect information from children under the age of 13, nor do we have a specific area for children, and therefore does not fall under the definition of a website covered by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. However, if this were to change in the future, we would comply with all requirements of COPPA.