At Hosper Mortgage Investment Corporation and Hosper Mortgage Administration Inc. (formerly, Equity Empire Investments Inc.), protecting our clients’ privacy and the confidentiality of their
personal information is fundamental to the way we do business. We recognize that we must be transparent and accountable in how we treat the information clients share with us.
How Do We Define Personal Information?
Personal information refers to information that specifically distinguishes clients as individuals and is provided to or collected by us. It includes, for example, name and address, age and gender, social insurance number, banking information, as well as investment and financial information.
How and Why Do We Ask for Personal Information?
We obtain our information about clients directly from them or from their agents and dealers. This information is gathered, primarily through detailed account opening forms, which we use in managing clients’ account(s). This information is necessary for a number of reasons, including:
- to fully understand clients’ investment needs and objectives;
- to verify clients’ identity and protect against fraud;
- to comply with our regulatory obligations; and
- to comply with the Canada Revenue Agency’s (“CRA”) income reporting requirements.
We limit the information we collect to what we need for these purposes, and we use it only for these purposes.
In order to provide our products and services to clients we may provide information to other persons:
- where we have client consent;
- where the other parties are agents or suppliers who assist us in serving our clients; or
- where we are required or permitted to do so by law (e.g. CRA).
We are required to advise clients that we will be disclosing client name, address and details of purchases to the applicable provincial securities commissions. This information is collected indirectly by the various securities commissions under the authority granted to them in securities legislation for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of the securities
legislation.
How We Protect Client Information
We protect client information with appropriate safeguards and security measures. We have security standards to protect our systems and clients’ information against unauthorized access and use.
All of our employees, agents and suppliers are bound to maintain client confidentiality and may not use the information for any unauthorized purpose. We monitor and review our procedures and security measures regularly to ensure that they are being properly administered and that they remain effective and appropriate. We make every reasonable effort to keep clients’ information accurate and up-to-date. We retain clients’ information for only as long as we require it for the reasons it was collected. When it is no longer required we will destroy or delete it in an appropriate manner.
Questions or Concerns
If you have any questions or concerns about the privacy and confidentiality of personal information, or if you would like access to your personal information that we have on file, please call us at (647) 277-6509.