Privacy Policy

Entities covered by this policy are:

EPSILON INSURANCE BROKING SERVICES LIMITED

T/AS EPSILON UNDERWRITING AGENCIES PTY LIMITED (“Epsilon”)

ABN 68 097 402 134

2. Epsilon’s principal place of business is:

Suite 401, Level 4, 68 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000

3. At Epsilon we are committed to ensuring the privacy of the personal information provided to us. The following statement sets out a general policy for the protection of such privacy.

4. We are bound by the 10 national privacy principals (NPPs) which form part of the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) ("the Act") as amended by the Commonwealth Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 with effect from 21 December 2001.

5. On request we will provide additional information about the way Epsilon manages the personal information it holds. We can be contacted in the following ways:

You can write to us:
Privacy Officer
Epsilon Underwriting Agencies Pty Ltd
Suite 401, Level 4, 68 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000

You can phone or fax us:

Telephone: (02) 9299 3466
Facsimile: (02) 9299 3488

6. When we arrange insurance at your request or on your behalf, we ask you for the information we need to effect your instructions. We provide that information to the insurers or intermediaries to obtain a quotation for your insurance or to enable them to decide whether to insure and on what terms. The insurers may pass this information on to re-insurers or other intermediaries which may be located outside Australia.

7. When you make a claim under a policy with your insurer we ask you for information about your claim which will be passed on to the insurer and its representatives or to those we have appointed to assist us to consider the claim.

8. We generally store the minimum personal information about individuals required to effectively manage our business relationship (for example name, address, and title). Depending on the services engaged by our clients, we may also need to hold specific or sensitive information about individuals, including third parties. Generally it will not be possible to deal with us anonymously, due to the nature of our services. We will however respect confidentiality in all dealings with us.

9. Some of the types of information we may hold about individuals include:
information provided to us when clients instruct us to obtain insurance cover;
information relating to broking services requested by clients.

10. We will not ask to collect sensitive information about individuals (such as details of race, political beliefs, religion or health) unless it is needed for the purposes of providing broking services. If personal information we request is not provided, we may not be able to supply the relevant service required.

11. We hold personal information for the following purposes:

  • to send correspondence and generally to undertake work in relation to services we have been engaged to provide;
  • internal accounting and administration;
  • to protect clients, individuals and us from fraud;
  • to help us identify and inform clients and individuals about all the services that might be beneficial to them, or to inform them about updates or changes to services previously acquired. If you would prefer not to receive this information, please let us know and we will respect your request.

 

12. We may use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected, for reasonably expected secondary purposes which are related to the primary purpose and other circumstances authorised by the Acts. Where we no longer require personal information for a primary purpose, we will take reasonable steps to destroy it.

13. We may disclose personal information to external service providers but only so that they can provide the services that we have contracted out to them. We will only transfer information to an organisation or individual of another country where this is necessary for the performance of our contract to provide broking services to our clients. Such disclosures will be on the understanding that the recipient will abide by the requirements of the NPPs and respect confidentiality.

14. We will endeavour to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up to date. We encourage you to contact us in order to update any personal information we hold about you which you discover is not up to date.

15. You generally have a right to access the personal information we store about you. We will have to verify your identity before meeting your request, which we will process in a reasonable time. A fee may be charged for more complex requests to provide access. This will be based on the reasonable cost to us of meeting such request.

16. We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of personal information. Our premises are in a secure building with access restricted to authorised persons. Our information technology systems are password protected. We frequently update our anti-virus software in order to protect our systems (and the data contained in those systems) from computer viruses.

17. All employees are required, as a condition of employment, to treat personal information held by us as confidential.

18. If you think that your privacy has been interfered with due to a breach of our obligations in relation to privacy, then you can complain directly to one of our directors or contact us (see above). If you are not satisfied with our response, we will advise you on your options for further proceeding with your complaint.

19. From time to time it may be necessary for us to review and revise our privacy policy. We reserve the right to change our privacy policy at any time.

20. If you want more detailed information then please contact our privacy officer (see above for contact details).

PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

The statutory scheme and the industry codes are based on 10 national privacy principles (“NPPs”) which set the basic standards for privacy protection. Any breach of an NPP can be referred to the Privacy Commissioner. The NPP’s include:

Collection

Collection of personal information must be fair, lawful and not intrusive. A person must be told the organisation’s name, the purpose of collection, that the person can get access to the personal information and what happens if the person does not give the information;

Use and Disclosure

An organisation should only use or disclose information for the purpose for which it was collected unless the person has consented, or the secondary purpose is related to the primary purpose and a person would reasonably expect such use or disclosure, or the use is for direct marketing in specified circumstances, or in circumstances related to public interest such as law enforcement and public or individual health and safety;

Data Quality

An organisation must take reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information it collects, uses or discloses, is accurate, complete and up to date;

Data Security

An organisation must take reasonable steps to protect the personal information it holds from misuse and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure;

Openness

An organisation must have a policy document outlining its information handling practices and make this available to anyone who asks;


Access and Correction

Generally, an organisation must give an individual access to personal information it holds about that individual on request;

Identifiers

Generally, an organisation must not adopt, use or disclose an identifier that has been assigned by a commonwealth government agency;

Anonymity

Organisations must give a person the option to interact anonymously whenever it is lawful and practicable to do so;

Trans Border Data Flows

An organisation can only transfer personal information to a recipient in a foreign country in circumstances where the information will have appropriate protection;

Sensitive Information

An organisation must not collect sensitive information unless the individual has consented and it is required by law or in other special circumstances, for example, public health or safety.

Code of Practice
& Industry Bodies
Complaints and Disputes

What to do if you have a complaint?

Epsilon has a strong cultural view that dispute’s need to be managed objectively, fairly and with discretion. Epsilon two different Dispute Resolution Procedures, internal and external.


Definitions

For the purpose of the Epsilon Complaint Handling procedures, the following definitions apply: -

Complaint
Any expression of dissatisfaction conveyed to Epsilon about a product or service provided by Epsilon, a member of staff, or one of its representatives, or to our complaints handling process. Where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected.

Dispute
Means an unresolved complaint.


Internal Dispute Resolution Inter Hannover

In the first instance all disputes will be in writing and referred to the Managing Director or a person authorised by him.
We will respond to complaints within 15 business days in writing provided we have all the necessary information and have completed any investigation required. In cases where further information, assessment or investigation is required we will agree to reasonable alternative timeframes. Complaints and disputes can be referred to Compliance Officer Michelle Watt at:

Michelle Watt
Epsilon Underwriting Agencies 
Suite 401, Level 4, 68 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone: (02) 9299 3466 
Facsimile:  (02) 9299 3488
Email:michelle@epsiloninsurance.com

We will keep the you informed the progress of our response to your complaint and notify you in writing of our response. If you want our response reviewed we will then treat it as a dispute and refer you to Michelle Watt who will inform you of their dispute resolution process.


External Dispute Resolution Inter Hannover

For our Inter Hannover binder business

In the first instance all complaints will be referred to Epsilon in writing as per our Internal Disputes Resolution process, and secondly if the complaint is not resolved satisfactorily, we will then refer you to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which is an independent external dispute resolution body approved by ASIC. FOS has the authority to deal with certain general insurance disputes and its determinations are binding on us but are not binding on you. If you are unhappy with the decision made by FOS, you retain your rights to seek redress elsewhere, for example, by commencing proceedings in a court.

FOS Contact Details
Freecall 1300 78 08 08
Post: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
Website: www.fos.org.au Email: info@fos.org.au

Further, if our IDR Committee is unable to resolve your Privacy dispute satisfactorily, you may apply to the Federal Privacy
Commissioner to have your complaint investigated. For more information about how you may lodge a complaint with the
office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, you can contact the Commissioner’s hotline on 1300 363 992.


Dispute Resolution Lloyd’s

For our Lloyd’s binder business we participate in the Lloyd’s Dispute Process. In the first instance all complaints will be referred to Epsilon in writing as per our Internal Disputes Resolution process, And secondly if the complaint is not resolved it will be referred to the Lloyd’s Dispute Process.

In the first instance all disputes will be in writing and referred to the Managing Director or a person authorised by him.
We will respond to complaints within 15 business days in writing provided we have all the necessary information and have completed any investigation required. In cases where further information, assessment or investigation is required we
will agree to reasonable alternative timeframes. If we cannot agree we will treat the complaint as a dispute and refer it to a Lloyd’s Australia representative Peter Fryer at:

Lloyd’s Australia Limited
Suite 2, Level 21 Angel Place
123 Pitt Street Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone: (02) 9223 1433
Facsimile: (02) 9223 1466
Email: peter@lloydaustralia.com.au

We will keep the you informed the progress of our response to your complaint and notify you in writing of our response. If you want our response reviewed we will then treat it as a dispute and refer you to Peter Fryer of Lloyd’s Australia who will inform you of their dispute resolution process.


What to do if you have a complaint?

About Lloyd’s
Since the late seventeenth century, the name Lloyd’s has been synonymous with insurance. Many of the world’s leading underwriters are based at Lloyd’s. The market is internationally renowned and has an impeccable claims record.
In Australia, Lloyd’s is proud to be a member of the Insurance Council of Australia, and strives to comply with the agreement we have made under the General Insurance Code of Practice.
Our aim is to provide the highest service to our Australian policyholders and, to this end, we have developed the following procedures for the fair handling of complaints from Lloyd’s policyholders.


How can we help you?

There are established procedures for dealing with complaints and disputes regarding your policy or claim. All policyholders can take advantage of the complaints service, as can third-party motor vehicle claimants who are uninsured and where the amount in dispute is less than $3,000.

Step 1
Any enquiry or complaint relating to a Lloyd’s policy or claim should be addressed to either your Lloyd’s insurance intermediary (“the coverholder”) or to the administrator handling your claim in the first instance – in most cases this will resolve your grievance.

They will respond to your complaint within 15 business days provided they have all necessary information and have completed any investigation required. Where further information, assessment or investigation is required, they will agree to reasonable alternative timeframes with you. You will also be kept informed of the progress of your complaint.

Step 2
In the unlikely event that this does not resolve the matter or you are not satisfied with the way your complaint has been dealt with, you should contact Peter Fryer at:

Lloyd’s Australia Limited
Suite 2, Level 21 Angel Place
123 Pitt Street Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone: (02) 9223 1433
Facsimile: (02) 9223 1466
Email: peter@lloydaustralia.com.au

When you lodge your dispute with us, we will usually require the following information:

  • Name, address and telephone number of the policyholder
  • The type of insurance policy involved
  • Details of the policy concerned (policy and/or claim reference numbers, etc)
  • Name and address of the insurance intermediary through whom the policy was obtained
  • Details of the reasons for lodging the dispute
  • Copies of any supporting documentation you believe may assist us in addressing your dspute appropriately.
  • Following receipt of your dispute, you will be advised whether your dispute will be handled by either Lloyd’s Australia or the Policyholder & Market Assistance Department at Lloyd’s in London:
    Where you are a retail client and your dispute is eligible for referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), your dispute will be reviewed by a person at Lloyd’s Australia with appropriate authority to deal with your dispute.
  • Where you are a retail client and your dispute is not eligible for referral to the FOS, or where you are a wholesale client, Lloyd’s Australia will refer your dispute to the Policyholder & Market Assistance Department at Lloyd’s, who will then liaise directly with you.

 


How long will the Step 2 process take?


Your dispute will be acknowledged in writing within 5 business days of receipt, and you will be kept informed of the progress of our review of your dispute at least every 10 business days.

The length of time required to resolve a particular dispute will depend on the individual issues raised, however in most cases you will receive a full written response to your dispute within 15 business days of receipt, provided we have received all necessary information and have completed any investigation required.


Step 3
If your dispute is not resolved in a manner satisfactory to you, we will then provide retail clients eligible for referral to the FOS with details of that body. FOS is an independent body that operates nationally in Australia and aims to resolve disputes between you and your insurer. Your dispute must be referred to the FOS within 3 months of the date of our final decision.

Retail clients not eligible for referral to the FOS, and wholesale clients, may be eligible for referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service (UK). Such referral must occur within 6 months of the final decision by the Policyholder & Market Assistance Department at Lloyd’s. Further details will be provided by the Policyholder & Market Assistance Department with their final decision to you.


How much will this procedure cost you?

This service is free of charge to policyholders.

1/7/08


Guidelines to assist with the Internal Disputes Resolution Process

Lloyds IDR PDF Lloyd's IDR