Privacy Policy

Ryze is an Australian agricultural finance business. We provide business-purpose credit — the FarmerCard Visa facility and AgLoan term lending — to Australian farming enterprises. This policy explains how we handle personal information, how we handle credit-related information under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code (CR Code), and how we use automated and AI-assisted systems in decisions about you, as required by Australian Privacy Principles 1.7 to 1.9.

 

We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). Our customers trust us with sensitive financial information, and we treat it accordingly.

 

What changed in this version: new section 05 (Automated decision-making and artificial intelligence); consequential renumbering of sections 05–14 to 06–15; minor updates to sections 03, 10 and 13. No change to the information we collect or who we share it with.

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01.  Who this policy covers

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This policy applies to the individuals we deal with, including:

• borrowers, and the directors, trustees, partners, beneficial owners and guarantors behind a borrowing entity;

• primary and secondary cardholders;

• introducers, brokers, distribution partner staff and supplier contacts;

• visitors to ryzemoney.com.au and users of our online portals; and

• job applicants and contractors.

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We do not provide consumer credit, deposit-taking, remittance or cash services. Our lending is for business purposes only.

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02.  What we collect

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• Identity information — name, date of birth, residential address, contact details, identity document details (driver licence, passport, Medicare card, birth certificate) and, where you verify your identity remotely, a facial image and liveness check.

• Financial and business information — ABN and ACN details, farm and enterprise information, financial statements, tax returns, bank statements, asset and liability positions, insurance and security details.

• Credit information — credit applications, credit history, repayment history, defaults, court judgments, insolvency information and credit scores, consumer and commercial.

• Transaction information — card transactions, merchant and spend data, balances and repayments.

• Technical information — IP address, device and browser data, portal login and audit records, and device intelligence used to detect fraud.

• Sensitive information — biometric information, collected with your consent and used only to verify your identity.

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We collect personal information about you only where it is reasonably necessary for our functions, or where the law requires it.

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03.  How we collect it

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Directly from you through application forms, our portals, email, phone and in-person meetings. Also from your authorised advisers and agents; from introducers, brokers and distribution partners who refer you to us; from credit reporting bodies and identity verification and screening providers; from our funders, insurers and merchants; and from public registers including ASIC, the PPSR, land titles offices and the Australian Business Register.

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Digital identity verification

We verify identity electronically through Equifax's IDMatrix service. With your consent, we ask you to photograph an identity document like driver licence, passport or Medicare card and record a short selfie video. We use your camera for this purpose only. We check the document and your image against records held by Australian government agencies through the Document Verification Service, and against other data sources including the electoral roll and credit header data, using a facial match and liveness check to confirm that the person presenting the document is you. Equifax acts as our agent in making those checks. We hold the images and the result of the check under section 9 and use them for no other purpose. 

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Where we collect information about you from someone else, for example, where a broker submits your application, or a borrower nominates you as a guarantor or secondary cardholder we take reasonable steps to make sure you are told we hold it.

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04.  Why we collect it, and how we use it

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We use personal information to:

• assess credit applications, set and review credit limits, and approve settlements;

• verify identity and meet our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), including customer identification, screening, transaction monitoring and reporting;

• issue and administer cards and facilities, process transactions, and manage collections, hardship and enforcement;

• detect and prevent fraud;

• meet insurance, funding and card scheme obligations, including those owed to our trade credit insurers, wholesale funders and Visa;

• manage introducer and partner relationships, including commission calculation;

• improve our products and services, and communicate with you about them; and

• meet our legal, regulatory, audit and reporting obligations.

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If you do not give us the information we ask for, we may not be able to assess your application, verify your identity, or provide or continue a facility.

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05. Automated decision-making and artificial intelligence

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We use computer programs — including in-house algorithms, statistical models, rules engines and artificial intelligence (AI) tools, as well as systems operated by our service providers — to make, or to help us make, a range of decisions about the people we deal with. This section explains what information those systems use, which decisions they make on their own, and which decisions they contribute to.

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The kinds of personal information our automated systems use

• Identity information, including identity document details, facial images and liveness-check results;

• Financial and business information, including financial statements, tax returns, bank statements and asset and liability positions;

• Credit information, including credit reports, credit scores, repayment history and default information obtained from credit reporting bodies and from our own records;

• Transaction information, including card transactions, merchant and spend data, balances and repayment patterns;

• Technical information, including IP address, device and browser data, portal activity and device intelligence signals; and

• Information from screening providers and public registers, including sanctions, politically exposed person (PEP), adverse media, ASIC, PPSR and land title records.

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Decisions made solely by a computer program

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In some cases a computer program makes a decision without a person being involved before the decision takes effect. These include:

• Identity verification outcomes — whether an identity document and facial image pass or fail electronic verification;

• Fraud and security controls — declining, holding or blocking a card transaction, portal login or application step that our systems assess as high-risk;

• Screening outcomes — placing an application or account on hold when a sanctions, PEP or adverse-media screen returns a match that requires review; and

• Routine account administration — applying standard fees, interest and payment allocations, and sending arrears reminders when a repayment is missed.

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Decisions that a computer program substantially contributes to

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For our most significant decisions, a Ryze credit officer or compliance officer makes the final decision, but the output of a computer program is a key input to that decision. These include:

• Credit decisions — whether to approve or decline an application, the credit limit or loan amount offered, pricing and risk grade, and whether to approve a settlement;

• Credit limit reviews and renewals — whether to increase, reduce or maintain a limit;

• Fraud and AML investigations — whether a flagged transaction, application or account is referred for investigation or reported to AUSTRAC;

• Collections and hardship — how an overdue account is prioritised, which collection steps are taken, and the terms of any hardship arrangement; and

• Partner and introducer management — commission calculation and quality monitoring of applications introduced to us.

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How we manage these systems

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We test our models and algorithms before deployment and monitor them while in use for accuracy, fairness and drift. A decision that materially affects your rights or interests — for example a declined application, a reduced limit or an enforcement step — is always reviewed by a person before it is communicated to you, and you can ask us to review it. We do not use sensitive information, including biometric information, in any automated process other than to verify your identity. We do not use generative AI tools to make decisions about you, and we do not provide your personal information to AI providers to train their models.

Your rights

If you believe a decision about you is wrong, you can ask us to explain the main factors behind it and to have a person reconsider it. Contact us at privacy@ryzemoney.com.au, and see sections 11 and 12 on access, correction and complaints.

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06.  Credit reporting

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We are both a credit provider and a user of credit reporting information.

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What we obtain and disclose

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With your consent and as permitted by law, we obtain consumer and commercial credit reports about the individuals connected to an application — including directors, partners, trustees and guarantors. We may disclose credit information about you to credit reporting bodies, including identification particulars, the fact of an application, account and limit details, repayment history, defaults, serious credit infringements and payment information.

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The credit reporting bodies we use

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Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Ltd (equifax.com.au) and, where required, other licensed providers. Each credit reporting body publishes its own policy on how it manages credit-related information.

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Your rights

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You may ask a credit reporting body not to use your credit information for direct marketing or pre-screening. If you believe you have been, or are likely to be, a victim of fraud, you may ask a credit reporting body to place a ban period on your credit information. You may also access and seek correction of the credit information we hold — see sections 10 and 11.

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A separate Credit Reporting Policy, setting out these matters in the detail the CR Code requires, is available on request from privacy@ryzemoney.com.au.

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07.  Who we disclose information to

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• our service providers — technology and hosting, identity verification, screening, fraud detection, card issuing and processing, payments, mail, document execution and archiving;

• credit reporting bodies, and other credit providers and referees you nominate;

• our introducers, brokers and distribution partners, in relation to the applications and accounts they introduce;

• our trade credit insurers, other insurers, wholesale funders, principal sponsor and card scheme;

• our professional advisers, auditors, debt collectors and legal representatives;

• regulators and government agencies — including AUSTRAC, ASIC, the ATO and law enforcement — where required or authorised by law; and

• any party in connection with a proposed sale, funding or restructure of our business, under confidentiality.

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We do not sell personal information.

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08.  Overseas disclosure

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We hold personal information in Australia. We do not disclose personal information to overseas recipients other than through secure cloud infrastructure operated under our contractual control, and we require those providers to protect the information to a standard consistent with the APPs.

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09.  Direct marketing

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We may send you information about our products and services. Every direct marketing communication carries a simple opt-out, and you can opt out at any time at privacy@ryzemoney.com.au. We do not use sensitive information for direct marketing, and we do not disclose your information to third parties for their own marketing.

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10.  Security and retention

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We protect personal information with access controls, encryption in transit and at rest, staff training, and vendor due diligence and monitoring, under our Cyber Security and Information Retention policies. We keep records for as long as we need them to provide our services and meet our legal obligations — including the seven-year AML/CTF record-keeping requirement — and then destroy or de-identify them.

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If we suspect a data breach, we assess it promptly and notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires it.

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11.  Access and correction

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You can ask for access to the personal and credit information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it. Email privacy@ryzemoney.com.au. We will verify your identity and respond within 30 days. Access is normally free; if a reasonable cost applies, we will tell you before we incur it. If we refuse access or correction, we will tell you why and how to complain.

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Where we correct credit information, we will notify the credit reporting bodies and other credit providers we disclosed it to, unless that is impracticable or unlawful.

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12.  Complaints

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If you think we have mishandled your personal or credit information, contact our Compliance Officer at privacy@ryzemoney.com.au. We acknowledge complaints within one business day and aim to respond in writing within 30 days.

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If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the OAIC — oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001.

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13.  Other matters

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Government identifiers

We collect government identifiers such as tax file numbers and licence numbers only where the law permits, and we do not use them as our own identifiers.

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Anonymity

Because identification laws apply to lending and card issuing, we cannot deal with you anonymously or under a pseudonym for an application or an account. You can make a general enquiry without identifying yourself.

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Website and cookies

ryzemoney.com.au uses cookies and similar technologies to operate the site, keep sessions secure and understand how the site is used. You can disable cookies in your browser, though parts of the site may then not work. Our site links to third-party sites, which have their own privacy policies.

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14.  Changes to this policy

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We review this policy at least annually and update it when our practices change. The current version is always published at ryzemoney.com.au/privacy.

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15.  Contact us

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Privacy Officer, Ryze Capital Pty Ltd

Level 1, 477 Pitt Street, Haymarket, NSW 2000

privacy@ryzemoney.com.au

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