Privacy Policy

Canada Guaranty’s Commitment to Privacy

Canada Guaranty Mortgage Insurance Company (“Canada Guaranty”) protects your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information, as it is an important aspect of our operations. As a provider of financial products and related services, the collection and use of customers’ personal information is fundamental to our day-to-day business operations. We strive to provide you with the best customer service. To us, that includes treating your personal information fairly and with respect. Each Canada Guaranty employee and representative must abide by our commitment to privacy in the handling of personal information.

What is Personal Information?

Personal Information means information about an identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.

Canada Guaranty obtains, either independently or from their customers and other nonaffiliated third parties, personal information. This personal information relating to an individual includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Loan application information
• Information from credit reporting agencies
• Information regarding the specific transaction
• Property information

Accountability to Customers

At Canada Guaranty, we take our commitment to securing your privacy very seriously. We have appointed a member of our management team as Canada Guaranty’s Compliance Officer. The Compliance Officer is responsible for analyzing all personal information handling practices at Canada Guaranty and insuring that our Privacy Policy is up to date and in force at all times. Our employees are informed about the importance of privacy and receive information periodically to update them about our Privacy Policy and related policies. Each employee and representative of Canada Guaranty is responsible for the personal information under his or her control.

Why We Collect Information

Whenever we collect information about you, we will explain how we intend to use it, either at that time or earlier. We will limit the information we collect to what we need for those purposes and we will use it only for those purposes. If we wish to use your information for any other purpose we will obtain your consent.

We ask you for information to serve your financial needs. We obtain most of our information about you directly from you, in addition to other third party sources.

Personal information is required:

• to verify your identity;
• to evaluate your application for underwriting insurance, particularly with respect to the credit risk being undertaken;
• to administer our insurance business  properly;
• to comply with regulatory requirements or as may be authorized or required by law;
• to analyze and manage risk; and
• to share risk with reinsurers

Consent

Your knowledge and consent are required before we may collect, use or disclose your personal information, except in special circumstances, such as during a fraud investigation, an investigation by the police, or in situations otherwise permitted by law.

We accept any of the following as your consent for Canada Guaranty’s existing use and future collection, use and disclosure of your personal information for the purposes identified herein or in any document in which you expressly give your consent:

• Your receipt of this Personal Information Policy, unless you advise Canada Guaranty, either orally or in writing, that you do not agree with the terms stated in this Policy, and that you wish to opt out of all or portions of it;
• Your unrestricted provision of information to Canada Guaranty either directly or through financial institutions or mortgage brokers; or
• Your express written or oral consent as obtained through the application for mortgage default insurance.

You may withdraw your consent at any time upon reasonable notice, subject to legal or contractual restrictions. Please note that withdrawing your consent may affect our ability to continue to provide you with the products and services that you have or would like to receive.

To withdraw your consent, you should contact our Compliance Officer, in writing, at the address listed below. Unless otherwise heard from you, you are giving us your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information as provided in this Policy for the purposes identified herein.

Limiting Collection of Information

The personal information about you, which we collect, will be limited to that which is necessary for the purposes identified to you by us. Information will be collected by us by fair and lawful means.

Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention of Information

We will not use or disclose your personal information for purposes other than those identified to you at the time your consent was given. We will seek your further consent before using the information for purposes beyond the scope of your original consent.

There are some unavoidable types of disclosure of your personal information which may occasionally occur as part of Canada Guaranty fulfilling its routine obligations and/or conducting its business in the ordinary course. This includes, for example, disclosure to rating agencies, consumer reporting agencies, partners, consultants and suppliers to Canada Guaranty (also known collectively as “service providers”).

We will retain your information only for the time it is required, for the purposes we describe and for a reasonable length of time thereafter, in case we need to meet any potential obligations or legal or government requirements. Where necessary, some of the information we collect for insurance purposes is kept for extended periods of time in compliance with the relevant laws. Once your personal information is no longer required, it will be destroyed or made anonymous.

Accuracy of Information

All decisions involving personal information should be based on accurate and timely information. While we will do our best to base our decisions on accurate information, we rely on you to disclose all material information and to inform us of any relevant changes.

Safeguarding Your Information

We will protect your information, whether in electronic or paper based format, with strict safeguards and security measures, to protect it from unauthorized access, disclosure or misuse. We audit our security procedures regularly to ensure that they are being properly administered and that they remain effective and appropriate.

Openness

Canada Guaranty has prepared this plain language Privacy Policy to keep you informed. It is made available to the public in paper form at the address set out below.

Provision of Access to Information

We will give you access to the information we retain about you within a reasonable time, upon receipt of a written request and satisfactory identification. You also have the right to know to whom your personal information has been disclosed, except where such disclosure was to a governmental body or service provider for routine purposes or to a governmental body where that body has exercised a legal right to obtain same.

We may charge you a nominal fee for processing your request, and if so, we will give you advance notice of the amount thereof.

In some cases, we may not provide access to personal information within our possession or control. This may occur when:

• doing so would reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual;
• disclosure would reveal confidential commercial information;
• the personal information is protected by solicitor/client privilege; or
• the information was collected during the investigation of a legal matter or related to the detection and prevention of fraud or cannot be disclosed for other legal reasons.

If we deny your request for access to your personal information, we will advise you in writing of the reason for the refusal.

Interpretation of this Privacy Policy

Any interpretation associated with this Privacy Policy will be made by the Compliance Officer. This Privacy Policy includes examples, but is not intended to be restricted in its application to such examples, therefore where the word “including” is used, it shall mean “including without limitation”.

This Privacy Policy does not create or confer upon any individual any rights, or impose upon Canada Guaranty any rights or obligations outside of, or in addition to, any rights or obligations imposed by the privacy laws applicable to such individual’s personal information. Should there be, in a specific case, any inconsistency between this Privacy Policy and such privacy laws, this Privacy Policy shall be interpreted, in respect of that case, to give effect to, and comply with such privacy laws.

Revisions to this Privacy Policy

Canada Guaranty may from time to time make changes to this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in its legal or regulatory obligations or in the manner in which we deal with your personal information. We will make available any revised version of this Privacy Policy and we encourage you to refer back to it on a regular basis.

Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective from the time they are posted, provided that any change that relates to why we collect, use or disclose your personal information will not apply to you unless you consent to such change.

Do You Have Questions or Concerns?

If you have a privacy question, concern or complaint that you wish to bring forward, please follow the below steps to ensure we can effectively address your concerns and resolve any issues as quickly as possible.