Customer due diligence at Sb Life Insurance

What is FATCA?

FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) is an agreement signed between the United States and other countries that aims to prevent tax evasion by US taxpayers through the use of non-US financial institutions. The information to be reported includes interest income, dividends, income earned from derivatives, life insurance payouts and the gross sales prices of shares and debt instruments. 
Finland and the United States signed a FATCA agreement in 2014 pertaining to the exchange of tax information between the two countries. According to FATCA, financial institutions must identify the customers whose information must be reported to the United States. 
For this reason, Sb Life Insurance is also required to comply with the FATCA agreement and identify the customers subject to the reporting obligation under FATCA. 
US taxpayers include US citizens (including those with dual or triple citizenship), persons residing in the US on a Green Card, US-registered corporations as well as corporations that have US taxpayers among their significant shareholders.
All information and documentation provided by the customer to the bank is handled confidentially in accordance with the Finnish regulations on banking secrecy.

Processing personal data and registers 

Processing personal data

The processing of personal data is an essential aspect of an insurance company’s operations. Personal data is used in handling insurance and compensation matters, marketing and other activities required for maintaining the customer relationship. The use of personal data is regulated by the Finnish Personal Data Act as well as the Finnish legislation governing insurance companies. We comply with the industry’s common guidelines in the processing of personal data.

File descriptions have been prepared on the registered personal data. In addition to customer, insurance and compensation registers as well as registers related to recordings of telephone conversations, Sb Life Insurance has direct marketing registers related to participation in customer contests, for example.

To prevent criminal offences against insurance companies, insurance companies have a shared register on damages. Information is collected in the register to prevent claimants from seeking compensation for the same losses from multiple insurance companies. Information on persons found guilty of criminal offences against an insurance company are also entered in a shared insurance abuse register. The Finnish authorities in charge of data protection have granted special permission for maintaining the shared registers.

The data is processed carefully, in compliance with the law and good data processing practices and by otherwise ensuring that the privacy of data subjects is not compromised. The registered data is obtained from the customers themselves, parties authorised by the customers, from public registers maintained by the authorities and from the credit information register. Telephone conversations with customers may be recorded as evidence of the content of the discussion in certain situations; for example, when the matter involves concluding an insurance agreement or discussing compensation.

Sb Life Insurance Ltd will not disclose the information it obtains to third parties without the consent of the party concerned, except where such disclosure is based on a legal provision. 

The rights of data subjects

Pursuant to the Finnish Personal Data Act, everyone shall have the right of access to the data on him or her in a personal data file, the right to request rectification of personal data and the right to prohibit processing.

The right of access means that everyone has the right to know whether a given register contains data on him or her and, if it does, what that data comprises. A request to inspect the data can be requested by submitting the enclosed form. The response time is three months.

Data subjects have the right to request the rectification, removal or supplementation of data in the register. Data subjects can opt out of marketing communications by notifying the company at a Savings Bank branch or by telephone or post.

Sp-Henkivakuutuksen tietosuojaseloste (In Finnish)