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Policies

Privacy policy

This privacy notice explains the privacy policy adopted by Bank Workers Charity with regard to data collected when you visit www.bwcharity.org.uk (our site), which is the website of Bank Workers Charity.

Bank Workers Charity is the working name of the Bankers Benevolent Fund, a company limited by guarantee in England (No.19366) and a charity registered in England (No.313080).

Our registered office is 35 Great St Helen’s, London, EC3A 6AP.

Bank Workers Charity takes the privacy of your data seriously and we hope the information below is clear and easy to understand. If you’d like further information or have any questions, contact our Data Protection Lead by sending an email to: dpl@bwcharity.org.uk

Bank Workers Charity’s use of data is regulated by the ICO who can be reached to raise a concern.

Bank Workers Charity’s use of data is compliant with the UK’s most recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which can be explored here.

Visitors to our website

Please read our cookie policy for information on how we use cookies.

Neither we, nor organisations that process data on our behalf, will collect personal information about individuals who visit our website, except where it’s specifically and knowingly provided by that individual as described below.

Where we collect personal information, it is kept private and stored securely in line with GDPR as noted above.

Google Analytics – trend analysis

We use Google Analytics, a third-party service, to log general information about visitor behaviour on our site. This data is collected to allow us to understand patterns of user behaviour and does not allow us to identify the behaviour of personally identifiable visitors. Examples of this analysis include which pages are visited most, how long visitors stay on the site, which pages do visitors exit from most, and other non-personally identifiable analysis.

Hotjar – trend analysis

We use Hotjar website visualization software to provide us with insights into user behaviour on our website. This data is collected to allow us to understand patterns of visitor behaviour and does not allow us to identify the behaviour of personally identifiable visitors. Examples of this analysis include how users clicked on a page, moved, scrolled, and on what devices. It also records visitor’s clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements to identify usability issues.

We record the data you enter in our Contact Us form securely. We then pass that data securely to the part of the organisation responsible for responding to your query.

Help and support

When you fill in our Contact Us form to request help and support (for example, with a mental health, relationship, financial, caring or other such query), and you have provided the bank you or your partner are connected with, your data will be recorded in our Customer Relationship Database (CRM) system so that we can provide you with the support you have requested.

Your data is then stored in secure servers hosted within the EU and managed by our CRM provider, Salesforce.

A member of staff will contact you using the data you have provided to us for that purpose. And if necessary, and you agree, your data may be shared with a third-party data processor, acting on our behalf, to provide you with support.

Your data will be stored by us for as long as we provide support to you and for six years thereafter.

When you contact us requesting help and support, as above, but you have not provided the bank you or your partner are connected with, you will be contacted using the data that you have provided to us to establish that you or your partner are connected with a bank. When a bank connection has been established your information will be recorded in our CRM system so that we can provide you with the support that you have requested.

General enquiries

When you contact us with a general enquiry, (for example, asking for our address, asking if we are interested in an event, asking us to add you to a mailing list, or other such query), your data will only be recorded in our CRM system if the nature of the request requires us to do so to fulfil that request.

As an organisation that exists to support the health and wellbeing of current and former bank workers, and their dependants, we have a legitimate interest in processing personal data to communicate with current and former bank workers on matters that relate to our work and support of our clients.

As a result, we do not usually need your consent to send you communications that allow us to inform you of the support and services we offer, or to request your participation in research and/or feedback in order to improve our understanding of our community, its needs and to develop the services we provide. In pursuit of this objective, we may store your personally identifiable data in our secure CRM. Where consent is needed by us, we will always ask for this consent separately and clearly.

This website contains links to third-party websites which are outside our control and which are therefore not covered by this privacy policy. Whilst we take great care to check the quality and reliability of the sites that we link to, we cannot be held responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. We encourage you to check the privacy statement of each website you visit, particularly where your personal information is collected.

Financial donations to our site are managed by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) who process your data on our behalf. When you make a donation, and it is not anonymous, your data, excluding details of your payment method such as card information, is securely downloaded from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and is recorded in our CRM system to enable us to thank you for your donation.

Your data will be stored by us for six years after you made your donation unless you agreed to Gift Aid your donation, which requires us to store your data to meet our HMRC responsibility.

We record the data you enter in registration forms securely on our website and also on our CRM to enable us to monitor the use of our services. Your data will be stored by us for as long as we provide support to you and for six years thereafter.

For certain services, for example the PAM Wellbeing App, we do not pass your details on to the third party – we provide you with the link and code to access the third-party app yourself, and any information provided when registering for and using the app is subject to the privacy policy of the third-party organisation. We only receive anonymised data showing usage of the app.

For certain services, for example, the Workfriend portal, we pass your name and email address to the third-party company who contact you directly using the contact information you provided in registering for access to the service.

When you enter your email address into our subscription service, that email address is provided – via a secure encrypted channel – to HubSpot. We provide your data to HubSpot so that we can fulfil our obligation to you in providing the advertised email subscription service. We may take steps to ensure that the email address we hold in HubSpot is made known to other of our databases, for example our CRM, so that we do not hold duplicate information for you.

If you unsubscribe from receiving our subscription service emails we may record this requirement against any associated record we hold, (with your knowledge), to ensure your requirements are known. We will use anonymised data provided through the HubSpot service so that we might improve our service to you.

When you enter data in our Live Chat service that data is transferred to us via a secure encrypted channel. Your data is then stored in secure servers hosted within the EU and managed by our Live Chat provider Live Chat inc. If, following a Live Chat discussion you become a client your data will be stored in our CRM system so that we can provide you with the services you requested.

We will use anonymised data provided through our Live Chat service to help us improve our service to you. We may use your data to contact you in order to provide the services you have requested from us. A transcript of your conversations via Live Chat can be requested by you via our Live Chat service.

Contacting us for help and support

When you get in touch to ask for support, your details are requested or are passed to a member of our staff, who will contact you to discuss your request.

When we speak to you, we will ask you about your employment history, current work, health and wellbeing, financial and housing situation, household, your relationship and care needs.

We may have to ask for your consent to record certain information, relating to for example, your physical or mental health or other personal circumstances. You can withdraw your consent for our use of this data at any time by telling us.

The information that you provide to us will be used by us to consider the help and support that we can offer you, and also to discuss options with you about other sources of help.

We work with a number of other charitable organisations and specialist partners. We may be able to refer you to them if we, and you, think you would benefit from their support. We will always ask you for your consent before doing this. If we arrange a home visit with you, your contact details will be used to manage that visit. If you provide us with contact details e.g. your email address, we may contact you in future if we have a new service that we think may be of interest to you.

When you enter data in our Live Chat service that data is transferred to us via a secure encrypted channel. Your data is then stored in secure servers hosted within the EU and managed by our Live Chat provider Live Chat inc.

If, following a Live Chat discussion you become a client, your data will be stored in our CRM system so that we can provide you with the services you requested. We will use anonymised data provided through our Live Chat service to help us improve our service to you. We may use your data to contact you in order to provide the services you have requested from us. A transcript of your conversations via Live Chat can be requested by you via our Live Chat service.

When you apply for financial support, we ask you to complete an application form which includes questions about your employment history, family, housing, household and financial situation. We also ask you to provide us with copies of supporting documentation.

We may collect data of family members within your household, which may or may not include your children. We do this to help us to get a full picture of your situation and to provide relevant advice, particularly if the financial support you are requesting is related to one of your family members.

Once we have collected all the necessary information, your application will be considered and then assessed depending on the amount of financial support requested by a member of staff or by the Trustee Board, to ensure any decision is in line with our charitable objects. If your request for financial support is to be reviewed by our Trustees, we will discuss this with you.

If your application is successful, funds are usually paid directly to the third party providing the support or service to you, and your name and contact details will be shared with them at that point. When it is necessary to pay you directly we will confirm with you your bank account details.

We retain your personal data to confirm both your eligibility and that of your family members, to access our services on the basis of our ‘legitimate interest’ as a charity, and where you provide consent to keep you up-to-date with the range of support available to you. If you would like to know more about this, please get in touch with us.

We only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including satisfying any legal, regulatory or reporting requirements. If your application for financial support or help is successful, your personal data will be stored by us for as long as support is provided to you and for six years thereafter. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or for the purposes of satisfying any legal requirements.

If your application for financial support or help is unsuccessful, your data will be retained by us for six years thereafter.

The level of banking service is taken into account as part of assessing access to services and financial support. Once we receive your banking service confirmation (payslip, bank statement, bank pension letter or HRMC report), it will be retained on your case file permanently.

We have contracts in place with companies who provide us with services, which ensure they are also keeping your data safe. These companies are:

A member of staff may speak in confidence with other charities, partner services or organisations if it will help your case. We will only pass on your information to other charities, partner services or organisations with your agreement. We will only share what is necessary and only staff within the team will have access to your information in order for us to provide the best possible service.

Your rights

Your rights in relation to your personal information are:

  • You have the right to be informed about how we use your personal data
  • You have the right to request access to the personal information that we hold about you by making a “subject access request”
  • You have the right to have your data corrected if it’s inaccurate or incomplete (the “right to rectification”)
  • You have the right to object to or restrict the processing of your personal information
  • You have the right to have your personal data erased (the “right to be forgotten”)
  • You have the right to move, copy or transfer your personal data (“data portability”)
  • You have the right to object to your personal information being used for automated decision-making and profiling

You can exercise any of the following rights either by phoning us on 0203 873 8535 or by completing our contact us form. There is no charge for this.

Bank Workers Charity’s use of data is regulated by the ICO who can be reached to raise a concern.

This policy was last updated in August 2025.

Illustration depicting a mental health matters.

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