At Sterling Bank, maintaining our customers’ trust and confidence is of utmost importance. Congress enacted the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Financial Services Modernization Act) which requires banks and other providers of financial services and products to provide written notice of their privacy policies. Most recently, Federal law was amended to provide consumers the opportunity to limit some but not all marketing from the Sterling family of companies. Federal law also requires us to give you this notice to tell you about your choice to limit marketing from the Sterling companies. You may limit the Sterling companies, such as credit card companies, insurance, investment advisors (MBM Advisors, Inc.) and securities affiliates, from marketing their products or services to you based on your personal information that they receive from other Sterling companies. This information includes your income, your account history, and your credit score. While this disclosure requirement is new, our commitment to protecting your privacy is not. We will continue to safeguard the privacy of the information you have entrusted to us.

This notice provides you with information on how Sterling Bank collects and uses your personal customer information. The notice also details how we maintain the confidentiality and accuracy of certain information. Additionally, this notice details how you can limit the sharing of your nonpublic personal information with affiliates of the Sterling companies

We collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources:

• Information we receive from you on applications or other forms;
• Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others; and
• Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency.

We may disclose the following kinds of nonpublic personal information about you:

• Information we receive from you on applications or other forms, such as your name, address, social security number, assets and income;
• Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others, such as your account balance, payment history and parties to transactions; and
• Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency, such as your creditworthiness and credit history.

We may disclose nonpublic personal information about you to the following types of third parties:

• Financial service providers, such as mortgage bankers, securities broker-dealers and insurance agents;
• Non-financial companies, such as retailers, direct marketers, airlines and publishers; and
• Others, such as non-profit organizations.

We may also disclose nonpublic personal information about you to nonaffiliated third parties as permitted by law.

We may disclose all of the information we collect, as described above, to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements.

Unless you tell us not to, we may share with companies in our corporate family information about you including:

• Information we obtain from your application, such as your name, address, social security number, assets and income;
• Information we obtain from a consumer reporting agency, such as your creditworthiness and your credit history;
• Information we obtain to verify representations made by you, such as your open lines of credit; and
• Information we obtain from a person or company regarding its employment, credit, or other relationship with you, such as your employment history.

Companies in our corporate family who may receive this information are:

• Financial service providers, such as mortgage bankers, broker-dealers, credit card companies, insurance agents, investments advisors, and securities affiliates; and
• Non-financial companies, such as retailers, direct marketers, airlines and publishers.

If you prefer that we not disclose nonpublic personal information about you to nonaffiliated third parties, you may opt out of those disclosures, that is, you may direct us not to make those disclosures (other than disclosures permitted by law) by completing the Opt Out (PDF 75KB) form and mailing it to: Sterling Bank, Opt Out Request, Attention: Deposit Operations Support, P.O. Box 40333, Houston, Texas 77240-0333.

Please note that Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to download the form. Click here to download a version of Adobe Acrobat.

If you have already made a choice to limit disclosure of non-public personal information to non-affiliated third parties, you do not need to act again.

Your Choice to Opt Out of Disclosure to Other Sterling Companies:

If you prefer that we not disclose information about you to other Sterling companies, you may direct us not to make these disclosures by completing the Opt Out form and mailing it to: Sterling Bank, Opt Out Request, Attention: Deposit Operations Support, P.O. Box 40333, Houston, Texas 77240-0333 or on the web at http://www.banksterling.com. Your choice to limit these marketing offers will apply for five years from when you tell us your choice. After five years, you will receive a renewal notice from us that will allow you to continue to limit our affiliate marketing.

If you have already made a choice to limit marketing offers from the Sterling companies, you do not need to act again until you receive the renewal notice.

Accuracy of Customer Information:

We believe it is vitally important that the information we maintain about you is as accurate as possible.  We maintain internal controls and procedures to ensure the accuracy of your information.  Should you have a question or concern about the accuracy or completeness of your information, please contact us and we will take immediate steps to correct the information or amend our records.

We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to only those employees who need such information to perform their job responsibilities.  In addition, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations and standards to guard your nonpublic personal information. 

If you decide to close your account or should your relationship with us be terminated for some other reason, we will continue to treat and safeguard your information as described in this notice. 

Sterling Bank is chartered under the laws of the State of Texas and by state law is subject to regulatory oversight by the Texas Department of Banking.  Any consumer wishing to file a complaint against Sterling Bank should contact the Texas Department of Banking through one of the means indicated below:

In Person or U.S. Mail:

2601 North Lamar Boulevard, Suite 300
Austin, Texas 78705-4294

Telephone:
877.276.5554

Fax:
512.475.1313

Email:
consumer.complaints@banking.state.tx.us

Website:
www.banking.state.tx.us