Charter Bank

Privacy Statement for Charter Bank

May 24, 2002

We at Charter Bank are committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. Our goals are to serve you as effectively and conveniently as possible and to ensure that information you share with us remains confidential. As part of our commitment, we have adopted the following privacy policy and have implemented this policy at all levels of our organization.

Our Privacy Pledge

Trust, privacy, and confidentiality are the watchwords of our commitment in meeting customer expectations of how we use the information we obtain.

Use, Collection, and Retention of Customer Information

Charter Bank collects nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources:

from you, on applications or other forms;
from your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others;
from credit reporting agencies; and
from third parties to verify information you have given us.

If we collect information about you, we will do so only for the specific business purpose or providing better service to you. At your request, we will tell you why we are collecting the information. We do not reveal specific information about your accounts or other personally identifiable data to parties outside our organization except as permitted by law. Even if you are no longer our customer, we will continue to adhere to the privacy policies and practices as described in this notice.

Accuracy of Information

We have procedures to help assure that your personal information is accurate, current, and complete. We also have procedures to correct inaccurate information in a timely manner, including processes to update information or remove outdated information. If you discover that any information we have about you is incorrect, please let us know immediately.

Employee Access to Information is Limited

Charter Bank limits access to your personal information to those employees with specific business reasons for knowing such information. We educate our employees about the importance of confidentiality and customer privacy. We have appropriate policies to enforce employee responsibilities regarding the privacy of customer information.

Protection of Information via Established Security Procedures

Charter Bank maintains physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to customer information. These safeguards comply with federal standards and leading industry practices. We update and test our technology to improve the protection of our customer information and to protect the integrity of our information. We also ask you to closely review your account and loan statements and contact us immediately if you suspect that someone has improperly accessed financial information about you.

Maintaining Your Privacy When We Do Business Outside Our Organization

It is sometimes necessary to provide personally identifiable information about you to a party outside our organization. Some examples include retaining a vendor or service company to prepare your account statements, process checks, or to provide support for one or more of our products or services. Such vendors are required by contract to safeguard your personal and confidential information and must abide by applicable laws.

As a Public Service

Many consumers wish to reduce the amount of national advertising that they receive. Contacting the Direct Marketing Association and the three major credit reporting bureaus may help. Please note that Charter Bank is not affiliated with any of these organizations; we are simply providing this information as a service to you.

Mail Preference Service
c/o Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008

Telephone Preference Service
c/o Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 9014
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014

You may also remove your name on the Direct Marketing Association's Web site, www.the-dma.org

You may occasionally receive offers from companies based upon information contained in your credit report. You have the right to prohibit the use of information contained in your file with any consumer credit reporting agency in connection with credit transactions that you do not initiate.
To do so, call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688). Or, you may contact the credit bureaus individually in writing.

Experian Opt Out
PO Box 919
Allen, TX 75013-0919
www.experian.com

Trans Union
Marketing Opt-Out
PO Box 97328
Jackson, MS 39288-7328
www.transunion.com

Equifax Opts
PO Box 740123
Atlanta, GA 30374-0123
www.equifax.com

Additionally, these credit bureaus can provide you with copies of your credit report (usually for a fee), and some of them allow you to sign up for services which will notify you when changes occur to your credit report. It is a good idea to periodically review your credit report for accuracy, especially prior to obtaining a loan.

Charter Bank's Web Site

Visitors to the Charter Bank's Web site (www.charterbankwa.com) remain anonymous. Charter Bank does not collect identifying information about visitors to our site. We use standard software to collect non-identifying information about our web site's visitors, such as:

Date and time our site was accessed;
IP address (a numeric address given to servers connected to the Internet);
Web browser used; and
City, state, and country.

Charter Bank uses this information to create summary statistics and to determine the level of interest in information available on our site.

Whom Should You Contact with Questions?

Comments and inquiries concerning our privacy policy are welcome. We will be glad to answer your questions. Please contact Richard Darrow, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at 425.586.5016 or email privacy@charterbankwa.com.