1. Purpose and Scope

This Privacy Policy governs the processing, retention, protection, and management of all personal information acquired by Mint Finance (“we”, “us”, “our”) through our short-term credit applications, self-service portals, web application frameworks, and operational lending workflows within the Republic of South Africa.

By interacting with our digital interfaces, completing credit requests, or maintaining an active lending account, you explicitly consent to the collection and handling of your data as detailed within this policy layout.

2. Commitment to POPIA

2.1. Mint Finance acts as a Responsible Party under the definitions set out in the Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”). We are committed to upholding the eight foundational conditions for lawful processing as prescribed by POPIA:

• 2.1.1. Accountability: Ensuring robust institutional measures to adhere to all data guidelines.
• 2.1.2. Processing Limitation: Processing data lawfully, minimally, and solely with explicitly verified customer consent.
• 2.1.3. Purpose Specification: Gathering data strictly for defined purposes tied directly to credit provisioning and administrative operations.
• 2.1.4. Further Processing Limitation: Restricting secondary usage of data unless directly matching the primary collection targets.
• 2.1.5. Information Quality: Maintaining up-to-date, complete, and reliable consumer profiles.
• 2.1.6. Openness: Preserving clear transparency on the specific tracking indices and reasons data is collected.
• 2.1.7. Security Safeguards: Erecting sophisticated logical, digital, and physical walls against external compromise vectors.
• 2.1.8. Data Subject Participation: Providing seamless pathways for users to view, update, correct, or request deletion of their personal records.

3. Information We Collect

To adequately evaluate credit limits and satisfy legal mandates under the National Credit Act, we are required to collect the following categories of personal information:

• 3.1. General Identity Parameters: Full names, South African national identity numbers or passport credentials, date of birth, and residency status indicators.
• 3.2. Contact Frameworks: Active telephone numbers, electronic mail channels, physical residential addresses (chosen legal domicilium), and alternate communication metrics.
• 3.3. Socio-Economic and Financial Data: Employment status, monthly income metrics, payslips, automated retail bank statements, verification of your Elected Bank Account, existing debt layouts, and spending history.
• 3.4. Credit Bureau Indices: Historical repayment histories, delinquency registries, debt review flags, credit scores, and background records sourced from registered credit bureaus.
• 3.5. Digital and Device Footprints: IP addresses, unique mobile device descriptors, telemetry patterns, tracking markers, interaction sessions on our secure web application, and cookie analytics.

4. How We Use Personal Information

Mint Finance utilizes your shared data strictly within regulatory boundaries to run core business frameworks, which include:

• 4.1. Accessing, analyzing, and finalizing risk parameters to determine short-term loan eligibility under affordability criteria;
• 4.2. Running identity verifications to limit instances of digital fraud, money laundering, and identity theft;
• 4.3. Executing electronic fund transfers (EFT) to advance authorized principal sums directly into your verified South African banking portal;
• 4.4. Managing active collection sweeps, automated debit orders, or DebiCheck mandates to handle outstanding installments;
• 4.5. Supplying regular statements of account, payment alert trackers, and corporate communication updates via email, SMS, or authorized digital channels such as WhatsApp;
• 4.6. Enforcing legal recoveries, handing over delinquent accounts to collections agencies, and defending our rights in administrative or judicial procedures; and
• 4.7. Distributing tailored marketing material, financial insights, or promotional opportunities, provided you have not opted out of receiving such information.

5. Information Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may disclose your information to authorized entities strictly for functional or legal compliance needs:

• 5.1. Registered Credit Bureaus: Sharing profile metrics, performance indexes, and defaults in accordance with the National Credit Act.
• 5.2. Technical and Operations Vendors: Providing data to automated tracking networks, cloud hosting centers, payment gateways, and communications service providers who support our core architecture under strict confidentiality bounds.
• 5.3. Legal and Recovery Outlets: Handing over active arrears profiles to specialized collections firms, legal counsel, and judicial systems to enforce outstanding debts.
• 5.4. Statutory and Law Enforcement Bodies: Disclosing details to regulatory authorities like the National Credit Regulator (NCR), the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), or the South African Revenue Service (SARS) when required by law.
• 5.5. Corporate Restructuring: Transferring or assigning data portfolios to a purchasing entity if Mint Finance handles a merger, acquisition, asset transfer, or structural buyout.

6. Data Security and Safeguards

6.1. Mint Finance deploys advanced logical, administrative, and physical security measures designed to shield personal records from unauthorized destruction, access, modification, or exposure. Our frameworks feature secure data encryption protocols, firewalls, role-based database access, and continuous intrusion tracking mechanisms.

6.2. While we deploy maximum efforts to preserve integrity across our networks, no digital infrastructure can be declared fully secure. If a data breach occurs and compromises your data, Mint Finance will notify the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as soon as reasonably possible, following the parameters dictated by Section 22 of POPIA.

7. Data Retention and Storage

7.1. Your data is stored within secured cloud servers located inside South Africa or within jurisdictions providing equivalent data privacy frameworks. We keep your information for as long as necessary to achieve the collection goals outlined here.

7.2. In compliance with the National Credit Act, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), and local tax legislation, certain financial logs, loan records, identity documents, and payment histories will be retained for a mandatory minimum period of 5 (five) years following the formal closure of your lending account. Once this period expires, all associated data is destroyed or anonymized.

8. Your Statutory Privacy Rights

As a valued data subject under POPIA, you possess specific legal rights regarding your personal records, including the right to:

• 8.1. Request confirmation, free of charge, regarding whether Mint Finance holds any of your personal information;
• 8.2. Request a formal record or summary description of the personal data held by us, including information on third parties who have had access to it;
• 8.3. Request the correction or amendment of inaccurate, outdated, incomplete, or misleading records across our system dashboards;
• 8.4. Object to the continued processing of your personal profile at any time on reasonable grounds, unless statutory retention provisions override this request;
• 8.5. Object to any processing actions directed toward automated direct marketing tracks, prompting immediate removal from marketing lists; and
• 8.6. Submit a formal complaint directly to the South African Information Regulator if you believe Mint Finance has compromised your statutory privacy rights.

9. Cookies and Web Tracking

9.1. Our digital interfaces utilize standard tracking cookies and telemetry tags to improve user experiences, analyze visitor volume, authenticate active login sessions, and optimize lending application performance.

9.2. You can configure your internet browser preferences to decline cookie tracking or alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable cookies, certain parts of the Mint Finance application framework or self-service dashboard may function with limitations.

10. Contacting Our Information Officer

10.1. If you wish to update your privacy settings, exercise your rights, submit a correction form, or clarify aspects of this policy layout, you can reach out directly to our compliance office.

10.2. Our official privacy communication details are as follows:

• Attention: The Information Officer / Compliance Department
• Corporate Entity: Mint Finance
• Support Email Support: [email protected]
• Telephone Channel: 062 778 7890

10.3. For broader regulatory inquiries or complaints that remain unresolved by our internal support desk, you can contact the national authority directly:
The Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]