Our principles
We take your privacy very seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information. This means:
- We will only ask you to provide us with personal information that helps us to help you.
- We will hold your personal information securely and responsibly. We use safeguards, including electronic encryption, to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information.
- We will only share your personal information with other companies in the DBW Group, with suppliers who perform services on our behalf, and as otherwise set out in this notice.
Why we collect and use your personal information
We may collect and use personal information about you for the following reasons:
- In connection with an application for, and the on-going management of, one of our investment products
- Because you would like us to contact you in response to a specific query;
- So that we can keep you informed about our investment products and services
- If you apply for a job with us
- In connection with the services that you provide to us
More information about how we use your information in connection with each of these purposes can be found by clicking on the above links. This website also uses cookies, more details of which can be found in our cookies policy.
Your data protection rights
The personal information you provide to us will be held in accordance with our responsibilities under data protection legislation. This includes the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation. These laws contain specific rights for you, including:
- the right to request access to personal information held about you (this is known as the right of subject access).
- the right to have inaccurate personal information about you corrected and, in some circumstances, the right for that information to be erased.
- the right to object to processing of your personal information in some circumstances (for instance if you think the information we hold about you is inaccurate, or if it is being used for direct marketing purposes).
- the right to object to your personal information being used for any automated decision-making, including profiling.
- the right to complain to the regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office, if you are unhappy about how your personal information is being used. The ICO can be contacted at www.ico.org.uk.
If you would like to exercise any of the rights set out above, including requesting details of the personal information we hold about you, please e-mail us at dpo@developmentbank.wales or write to us at:
DATA PROTECTION OFFICER Development Bank of Wales 1 Capital Quarter Tyndall Street Cardiff, CF10 4BZ
1. Using your personal information in connection with our investments
Why does the Development Bank of Wales need to use my personal information?
If you apply to us for one of our investments, you will need to provide us with information about you. This is so we can decide whether you are eligible for the investment and whether it is suitable for you. If your application is successful, we will continue to use your information as part of the on-going management of our investments.
We may also use personal information about you which is provided by others to inform our investment decisions. For instance, if you are financially associated with an applicant or are a director or owner of an applicant company, then we will need to collect personal information about you.
What information do I need to provide to the Development Bank of Wales?
The exact information that we require will be different in each case and will be set out on the application form. It will include basic information about you, such as your name, address, previous addresses and date of birth. If you are making an application as an individual, a sole trader or a partnership, we will ask you to provide information about your financial standing. We may also ask you to provide information about 'associated persons', which are people financially linked to you.
Where an application is made on behalf of a company or limited liability partnership, we will ask for information about the directors and beneficial owners (or partners) of the company (or LLP), including information about their financial standing. We will use this information to carry out credit and other relevant checks.
If we decide to make an offer of investment, we will ask you to complete a diversity monitoring form. Any information you provide us on this form will be used solely to help us monitor if we are achieving real equality of opportunity in delivering our services. It will not be used to make decisions affecting you.
What does the Development Bank of Wales do with my information?
When you provide your information to us or it is provided by others as part of an application, we will use it to assess the application and to make a decision on whether or not to provide the relevant investment. We will then use your information to manage our investment. Our uses of your information may include:
- Making searches about you at credit reference agencies. These agencies will provide us with credit information as well as information from the electoral register and will record details of any searches regardless of whether your application proceeds. You can find out more information about how your information is used by credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies by reading the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (“CRAIN”). This document describes how the three main credit reference agencies each use and share personal data. The CRAIN can be accessed here.
- Credit searching, for debt tracing and the on-going management of any funding we may provide to you.
- Credit-scoring, to determine your suitability for the relevant product or service.
- Fraud detection and prevention. We may share your information with fraud prevention agencies such as the National Crime Agency, for this purpose.
- Carrying out any of the above actions in respect of your business or any other applicants named on your application form.
- Carrying out surveys on customers and their businesses, in order to evaluate the impacts of our investments and identify trends in the funding that we provide to businesses of the activities listed above.
As part of the activities listed above, we will share your information with third parties such as credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies and survey companies. In addition, we will share information about our investments in Wales with the Welsh Government, the Welsh European Funding Office, Business Wales and the European Funds Audit Team. For Investments made by FW Capital, we will share information with the British Business Bank and Santander.
For applications to our Green Business Loans Scheme, we will share limited personal information relating to your application with third-party organisations contracted by DBW to provide technical energy project assessments.
Your personal data may be processed outside the European Economic Area (“EEA“). We will take precautions (in accordance with relevant guidance by regulatory bodies) to ensure that any transfer of your data outside the EEA will be subject to safeguards that protect your privacy rights and that your data will be kept secure at all times.
Please refer to the specific application forms for exact details of how we will use your personal information in relation to each of our investment products.
What is the legal basis for using my information?
Under data protection law, we must have a valid legal basis for collecting and using your personal information. When you apply for one of our investments, the following legal bases may apply:
- Your application is a request for us to enter into a contract with you. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for us to do so in order to enter into a contract with you and for the performance of that contract.
- We are subject to various legal obligations whenever we consider applications for investment, including anti-money laundering legislation and the requirements of the Financial Conduct Authority. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary in order for us to comply with our legal obligations.
- We believe that carrying out appropriate checks on potential customers, and then monitoring the performance of our investments during the term of our relationship, are in our legitimate interests as a responsible lender. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided that our interests are not overridden by your own interests.
- In the event that any additional information you provide to us comprises of special category personal information, we are permitted to use this when you have provided your explicit consent for us to do so, for the purposes set out above.
How long does the Development Bank of Wales retain my information?
If your application is successful, we will keep your personal information for at least the duration of your contract with us, plus an additional period of seven years. This is to ensure that we have a full record of the contract between us, if there should be any dispute about the contract.
If your application is unsuccessful, we will normally delete your information after 12 months.
We may hold your information for longer where it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, comply with the Terms and Conditions of the fund provider, to exercise legal rights or to defend legal claims.
What happens if I do not provide my information to the Development Bank of Wales?
In order for us to consider your application, there is certain information that you must provide to us. If you do not provide all of the details we request in the application form, we will be unable to assess your application and it may result in you being unable to access our investments.
2. Using your personal information to respond to your enquiry
Why does the Development Bank of Wales need to use my personal information?
If you contact us for more information about a particular investment product, or if you make a general enquiry, we will need to process your personal information in order to respond to you.
What information do I need to provide to the Development Bank of Wales?
That will depend on the nature of your query. The ‘contact us’ page on our website sets out the minimum information we will need about you in order to respond to your query.
What does the Development Bank of Wales do with my information?
We will use the information to respond to your query and, if you agree, to contact you again to provide you with information about our products and services (see part 3, below).
What is the legal basis for using my information?
Under data protection law, we must have a valid legal basis for collecting and using your personal information. When you contact us for more information about our products or services, we believe that we have a legitimate interest in being able to respond fully to your enquiry. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided that our interests are not overridden by your own interests. In this case, we believe that using your personal data to respond to your query is in both your and our interests.
How long does the Development Bank of Wales retain my information?
We will hold your information for the time it takes to deal with your query. We will normally delete your information after 12 months, unless you would like us to retain your contact details to keep you informed of our products and services (see Part 3, below).
What happens if I do not provide my information to the Development Bank of Wales?
You do not need to provide us with your personal information. However, if you do not provide sufficient information, we may not be able to respond accurately to your query. If you contact us via our website, we ask that you provide certain mandatory information so that we can deal with your query. .
3. Using your personal information to keep you informed of our products and services
Why does the Development Bank of Wales need to use my personal information?
If you would like to be kept informed of our range of investment products and services we will use your personal information to send you direct marketing communications (such as emails). We will only do this when we believe we have a legitimate interest to do so, or if you have agreed to us using your personal information for this purpose.
What information do I need to provide to the Development Bank of Wales?
You may provide us with your name and contact details via the ‘email sign-up' page on this website, our application form, at events or meetings.
We may also obtain your personal information from third-party intermediaries or other sources, such as the Institute of Directors, Companies House, ICEAW and Business News Wales. We will use your information to send you marketing mail that we think you would be interested in receiving.
What does the Development Bank of Wales do with my information?
We will use your contact details and details related to your role or job title to provide you with information about our products and services. We often runs its own events as part of its marketing activities. If you sign up for one of these events we may share your information with third parties who support us with hosting our events.
If you apply for one of our investments, we may ask you if you would like to be contacted by Business Wales, which offers a range of support and advice to Welsh businesses that may be of interest to you. If you agree to us doing so, we will pass your contact details on to Business Wales to allow them to contact you. Business Wales is managed by the Welsh Government.
What is the legal basis for using my information?
Under data protection law, we must have a valid legal basis for collecting and using your personal information. When we use your information for marketing purposes, the following legal bases apply:
- We believe that we have a legitimate interest in sending you information about our products and services. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided that our interests are not overridden by your own interests. In this case, we believe that telling you about our products and services is in both your and our interests. We will always give you the opportunity to opt out of receiving these communications.
- In some circumstances we will ask for your consent before we send you information about our products and services.
How long does the Development Bank of Wales retain my information?
We will hold your information until you choose to no longer receive marketing communications from us.
What happens if I do not provide my information to the Development Bank of Wales?
If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us, please let us know. You have the right to opt out at any time by e-mailing us at info@developmentbank.wales or clicking the 'unsubscribe' option in any of our marketing emails.
4. Using your personal information if you apply for a job with us
Why does the Development Bank of Wales need to use my personal information?
If you apply for a role with us, you will need to provide us with information about you. This is so we can decide on your suitability for the position.
What information do I need to provide to the Development Bank of Wales?
You will be asked to provide information about you in order for us to consider your application. This includes:
- Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number.
- Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
- Information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements.
- Whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process.
- Information about your entitlement to work in the UK.
- Equal opportunities monitoring information.
We may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, the information might be contained in application forms or CVs, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.
We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. We will seek information from third parties only if we decide to make you a job offer, and we will inform you that we are doing so.
What does the Development Bank of Wales do with my personal information?
Processing information from job applicants allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide who to send a job offer to. We may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
We will not share your information with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.
You acknowledge and agree that your personal data may be processed outside the EEA. We will take precautions (in accordance with relevant guidance by regulatory bodies) to ensure that any transfer of your data outside the EEA will be subject to safeguards that protect your privacy rights and your data will be kept secure at all times.
What is the legal basis for using my information?
Under data protection law, we must have a valid legal basis for collecting and using your personal information. When you apply for a role with us, the following legal bases may apply:
- Your application is a request for us to enter into a contract with you. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for us to do so in order to enter into a contract with you and for the performance of that contract.
- We are subject to various legal obligations whenever we consider applications. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary in order for us to comply with our legal obligations.
- We believe that carrying out appropriate checks on potential employees is in our legitimate interests. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided that our interests are not overridden by your own interests.
We may process special categories of personal information, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religion or belief, to monitor recruitment statistics. We may also collect information about whether or not applicants are disabled in order to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. You do not need to provide us with this information, but if you choose to do so, we will process it. We process such information to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
For some roles we must seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where we seek this information, we do so because it is necessary for us to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
We will not use your information for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied, unless you are successful, in which case your information will be retained in accordance with our retention policy.
How long does the Development Bank of Wales retain my information?
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold your information on file for one year after the end of the relevant recruitment process. We retain your personal information for that period so that we can show, in the event of a legal claim, that we have not discriminated against candidates on prohibited grounds and that we have conducted the recruitment exercise in a fair and transparent way.
If your application for employment is successful, personal information gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained in accordance with our staff privacy notice.
What happens if I do not provide my information to the Development Bank of Wales?
You are not obliged to provide any information to us. However, if you do not provide all of the details we request, we will be unable to assess your application.
5. Using your personal information in connection with services you provide to us
Why does Development Bank of Wales need to use my personal information?
If you provide services to Development Bank of Wales, you will need to provide us with information about you. This is so we can decide whether you are the right person to deliver the required service. We will continue to use your information as part of our on-going management of the service you provide.
What information do I need to provide to the Development Bank of Wales?
We require information such as your full name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number.
What does the Development Bank of Wales do with my information?
When you provide your information to us, we will use it in order to assess your suitability for the service. We will then use your information to manage our on-going relationship while you provide the service and will share that information with third parties as is required.
You acknowledge and agree that your personal data may be processed outside the EEA. We will take precautions (in accordance with relevant guidance by regulatory bodies) to ensure that any transfer of your data outside the EEA will be subject to safeguards that protect your privacy rights and your data will be kept secure at all times.
What is the legal basis for using my information?
Under data protection law, we must have a valid legal basis for collecting and using your personal information. When you apply to provide a service to us, the following legal bases may apply:
- Where your information is provided to us in connection with a service you provide to us. We are permitted to use your personal information for the performance of that contract.
- We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations.
- We believe that carrying out appropriate checks on potential service providers, and then monitoring the performance of service providers during the term of our relationship, is in our legitimate interest as a responsible lender. We are permitted to use your personal information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided that our interests are not overridden by your own interests.
How long does Development Bank of Wales retain my information?
We will keep your personal information for at least the duration of your contract with us, and after that for a period of seven years. This is to ensure that we have a full record of the contract between us, if there should be any dispute about the contract.
We may hold your information for longer where it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, to exercise legal rights or to defend legal claims.
What happens if I do not provide my information to Development Bank of Wales?
You are not obliged to provide any information to us. However, if you do not provide the details we request, we will be unable to use your services.
