Data Privacy Statement

In this Data Privacy Statement, we inform you about which personal data we collect, for what purpose and how this data is used.

If you contact the Swiss Banking Ombudsman by telephone, in writing or by any other means, you agree to your personal data being processed in accordance with this Data Privacy Statement.

1. What type of data do we process?

We process the personal data that we receive from you or your representative in the context of an enquiry, a request for mediation or a search request. This includes information that you have given us verbally as well as information that results from the documents you have submitted to the ombudsman’s office.

In addition, we may process data relating to you that we have received from the respondent, i.e. the bank or financial business to which your submission relates, specifically details of your business relationship.

In certain cases, we supplement your personal data with information from other sources, such as publicly available data search engines or telephone directories, such as surname, first name, address and telephone number.

2. For what purpose do we process your data?

We process your data in order to carry out our duties in accordance with the law, the guidelines of the Swiss Banker’s Association on the treatment of assets without contact and dormant assets held at Swiss banks (Guidelines on Dormant Assets), the foundation statutes and the rules of procedure of the Swiss Banking Ombudsman, in particular to answer your enquiry and, at your request, to check the conditions for carrying out a mediation procedure or a search for contactless or dormant assets and, if the conditions are met, to carry out a corresponding procedure.

3. Who do we disclose your data to?

The employees of the Swiss Banking Ombudsman’s office have access to your data. They are bound to secrecy.

On the basis of our Rules of Procedure or the Guidelines on Dormant Assets, in the course of processing an enquiry, a mediation procedure or a search for contactless or dormant assets, data relating to you may be transferred to the bank or financial business concerned and are then no longer subject to this Data Privacy Statement.

Service providers called in by us may have access to your data for the purpose of maintaining and controlling our data processing systems and in connection with the technical and administrative maintenance of the ombudsman’s office.

If you submit your enquiry, a request for mediation or a search request to the Banking Ombudsman by telephone, in writing or via the upload function available on our website via the Internet, your data will be stored in our case management system on servers in Switzerland operated by our IT service provider in Switzerland. 2

The transmission of information via the Internet involves certain security risks. We cannot accept any responsibility for the security and confidentiality of data submitted electronically.

4. How are cookies and similar technologies used on our website?

When you use our website, data is generated and stored in logs. We may also use cookies and similar technologies. In addition, we may use our own tools and those of service providers on our website, in particular to improve the functionality or content of our website and to compile statistics.

The service providers we use may be located outside of Switzerland. We currently use offers from the following service providers in particular:

5. What rights do you have?

You have certain rights in connection with our data processing. In accordance with applicable law, you can in particular request information about the processing of your personal data, have incorrect personal data rectified, request the deletion of personal data, object to data processing, request the release of certain personal data in a standard electronic format or its transfer to other persons responsible. If you wish to exercise your rights towards us, please contact us; you will find our contact details in section 6. In order for us to be able to exclude misuse, we must identify you (e.g. with a copy of your identity card, if necessary). Please note that conditions, exceptions or restrictions apply to these rights (e.g. for the protection of third parties or of business secrets, due to our professional duty of confidentiality or our rules of procedure). We reserve the right to black out copies or to supply only excerpts for reasons of data protection or confidentiality.

6. How can you contact us?

If you have any questions about the processing of your personal data, you can contact us as follows: Swiss Banking Ombudsman, Bahnhofplatz 9, P.O. Box, 8021 Zurich, Switzerland, Tel. +41 43 266 14 14 (German / English) or Tel. +41 21 311 29 83 (Français / Italiano).

Important note: Please note that the proceedings before the Ombudsman’s Office are confidential and that the parties’ right to access files and, accordingly, their right to information is limited to their own correspondence conducted with the Ombudsman (see Art. 4.5 of the Rules of Procedure for the Swiss Banking Ombudsman and Art. 75 para. 2 and 3 of the Federal Act on Financial Services (FIDLEG)).

Data Privacy Statement, Swiss Banking Ombudsman, Status 1 September 2023; subject to change without notice