Privacy Policy & Disclosure

In the course of daily business, the Bank receives sensitive information from and about our customers. The directors, management and staff of the Bank are committed to treating such information responsibly, and we know that our customers expect privacy and security for their personal and financial affairs.

The Bank will take all reasonably necessary steps to safeguard sensitive information that has been entrusted to us by our customers or received by us in connection with business we have with our customers. The following privacy policy and disclosure outlines our Bank’s practices regarding the nonpublic personally identifiable financial information we obtain from or about our customers. In this Policy Disclosure, we call this information “personal information” or “customer information.”

TYPES OF INFORMATION THE BANK COLLECTS

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

• Information we receive from you on applications or other forms.
• Information about your transactions with us and others.
• Information we receive from customer reporting agencies and other parties.

TYPES OF INFORMATION THE BANK DISCLOSES

The Bank will not disclose any personal information to any third party (nonaffiliated or affiliated) except as stated in this section.

As appropriate to the circumstances, the Bank may disclose any of your personal information:

• To companies (including our corporate parent, North Valley Bancorp) who perform:
  • Transaction processing and record-keeping for the Bank.
  • To maintain or service your deposit or loan account.
  • In connection with a securitization, secondary market sale (including servicing rights), or similar transaction.
• To collection agencies, attorneys and others we deem appropriate in connection with enforcement of the Bank’s legal or contractual rights or the rights of any other person who is engaged in the financial transaction.
• To those who we believe need the information in the ordinary course of business, such as to assist in the settlement of claims or benefits, the confirmation of information to you or your agent, and the billing, processing or clearing of items in the normal course of business.
• To insurance rating advisory organizations, guaranty funds or agencies, agencies that are rating the bank, persons who are assessing the Bank’s compliance with industry standards and the bank’s regulators, attorneys, accountants and auditors.
• To government agencies to the extent permissible under the federal and state Right to Financial Privacy Acts.
• To consumer reporting agencies.
• To other businesses who we reasonably believe have a legitimate need for the information, such as those seeking such information in connection with an application for credit you have submitted to the requestor.
• To comply with federal, state or local laws, rules and other applicable legal requirements.

SAFEGUARDING CUSTOMER INFORMATION

At this Bank we protect customer privacy by ensuring that only employees who have a business reason for knowing information have access to it. The Bank has appointed the Bank’s compliance officer as our financial privacy coordinator. This officer is responsible for maintaining internal procedures to ensure that our customers’ personal information is protected. For example, information in loan files can only be accessed by employees who work in the loan origination or loan operations departments.

All employees have a copy of this policy and are trained at least annually regarding the importance of safeguarding customer information. The financial privacy coordinator, the human resources director and the appropriate department manager will take appropriate disciplinary action against any employee who violates the Bank’s privacy policy and procedures.

If we change our policy or practice by, for example, adding a category of information that we will disclose to a third party, we will notify affected customers and, if required by the privacy laws, give them an appropriate time period to opt out of the disclosure.

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CHECK 21 POLICY

Substitute Checks and Your Rights

What is a substitute check?

To make check processing faster, federal law permits banks to replace original checks with "substitute checks." These checks are similar in size to original checks with a slightly reduced image of the front and back of the original check. The front of a substitute check states: "This is a legal copy of your check. You can use it the same way you would use the original check." You may use a substitute check as proof of payment just like the original check.

Some or all of the checks that you receive back from us may be substitute checks. This notice describes rights you have when you receive substitute checks from us. The rights in this notice do not apply to original checks or to electronic debits to your account. However, you have rights under other law with respect to those transactions.

Reconverting Bank:

A reconverting bank is one that creates substitute checks itself, or one that accepts substitute checks for deposit from its customers and introduces these items into the check collection or return process. This Bank is not a reconverting bank, in that it does not create substitute checks and it does not process these items for its customers. Therefore, the customer will not, without the bank’s express advance written consent, deposit any substitute check into an account.

Item standards:

Additional liability is created under Check 21 for any bank that introduces into the check collection or return process any item on which the necessary elements (name, account numbers, dates, amounts, signatures, endorsements, and the like) are not clearly legible when they are imaged or copied. Therefore, the customer will not write or deposit a check that is written in an ink type or color that does not reproduce clearly when imaged or copied. Further, the customer will not write or deposit a check that bears designs, security features, or other elements that prevent the check from being imaged or copied with all of its necessary elements being reproduced clearly.

What are my rights regarding substitute checks?

In certain cases, federal law provides a special procedure that allows you to request a refund for losses you suffer if a substitute check is posted to your account (for example, if you think that we withdrew the wrong amount from your account or that we withdrew money from your account more than once for the same check). The losses you may attempt to recover under this procedure may include the amount that was withdrawn from your account and fees that were charged as a result of the withdrawal (for example, bounced check fees).

The amount of your refund under this procedure is limited to the amount of your loss or the amount of the substitute check, whichever is less. You also are entitled to interest on the amount of your refund if your account is an interest-bearing account. If your loss exceeds the amount of the substitute check, you may be able to recover additional amounts under other law.

If you use this procedure, you may receive up to $2,500 of your refund (plus interest if your account earns interest) within 10 business days after we received your claim and the remainder of your refund (plus interest if your account earns interest) not later than 45 calendar days after we received your claim.

We may reverse the refund (including any interest on the refund) if we later are able to demonstrate that the substitute check was correctly posted to your account.

How do I make a claim for a refund?

If you believe that you have suffered a loss relating to a substitute check that you received and that was posted to your account, please contact us at 880 East Cypress Avenue, Redding, CA 96002. You must contact us within 40 calendar days of the date that we mailed (or otherwise delivered by a means to which you agreed) the substitute check in question or the account statement showing that the substitute check was posted to your account, whichever is later. We will extend this time period if you were not able to make a timely claim because of extraordinary circumstances.

Your claim must be in writing and must include-

• A description of why you have suffered a loss (for example, you think the amount withdrawn was incorrect);
• An estimate of the amount of your loss;
• An explanation of why the substitute check you received is insufficient to confirm that you suffered a loss; and
• A copy of the substitute check [and/or] the following information to help us identify the substitute check: the check number, the date of the check, the name of the person to whom you wrote the check, the amount of the check.