Technology and new marketing practices have increased the amount of customer information collected and shared in today’s marketplace. Consumers are concerned about the need for protection of their personal information. As a financial institution, Beverly Cooperative Bank has a special duty to safeguard its customers’ sensitive information. To serve our customers as effectively as possible, we must make use of customer information. At the same time, we want our customers to be confident that their financial records and their relationship with the bank will be treated with the appropriate confidentiality. Therefore, we have adopted the following principles to protect the privacy of the information shared with us:

1. Recognition of Customers’ Expectation of Privacy
We recognize your expectation of privacy and know that you expect privacy and security for your personal and financial affairs. We understand the need to safeguard our sensitive information about you that you have entrusted to us and will take appropriate steps to convey our commitment to financial privacy to our customers and to bank staff.

2. Use, Collection and Retention of Customer Information
We will collect, retain and use information about customers that would be useful and allowed by law to transact business and provide products, services and other opportunities to customers.

3. Maintenance of Accurate Information
The bank has established procedures to ensure that customers’ financial information is accurate, current and complete in accordance with reasonable commercial standards.

4. Employee Education
Bank employees are educated so that they understand the importance of confidentiality and customer privacy.

5. Security Procedures to Protect Information
We maintain security standards and procedures to ensure that only employees who are engaged in their assigned duties are authorized to access or use customer information.

6. Restrictions on the Disclosure of Account Information
We will not reveal specific information about customers or customer accounts to unaffiliated third parties for their independent use. However, we recognize the following exceptions:

• If the customer expressly authorizes the bank to provide such information, or the information is provided to help complete a transaction initiated by you.
• We may provide customer information to an auditor or examiner of the bank.
• We may provide information to an attorney or collection agency for a legitimate bank purpose, such as the collection of a debt.
• We may exchange information about our customers with reputable information reporting agencies such as a credit bureau.
• We comply with certain laws that require mandatory disclosure of customer information such as a court order or subpoena to produce records regarding our customer’s accounts or relationship with the bank.

7. Maintaining Customer Privacy in Business Relationships with Third Parties.
Sometimes it is necessary to provide personally identifiable information about you to a party outside our bank, such as to a vendor or service company that we hire to prepare your account statements or to provide support or services for one or more of our products. These vendors and service companies agree to safeguard our confidential information about you and your products and services with us and must abide by applicable law.

About our information request form and e-mail
Any information provided to us through our web site (i.e. e-mail or information request forms) will be used solely for answering customer questions, or conducting Bank business. Demographic information - including name, age, e-mail or mailing addresses - will not be distributed, or sold, to any outside source. Our request forms ARE NOT SECURE. Please do not send sensitive information through our information request forms or by e-mail.

Links
Beverly Cooperative Bank provides links to outside sites as a service to our web site visitors. We are not responsible for the content, views, or privacy policies of these sites.

Community Banking at its Best.
If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this web site, you can contact:
Beverly Cooperative Bank
254 Cabot Street
Beverly, MA 01915
(978) 922-0857