Pro Finance Academy Ltd is a private limited company registered in the United Kingdom under Company No. 10844474.

For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018 as amended, and other applicable UK data protection legislation, Pro Finance Academy Ltd is the Data Controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy.

PFA determines why and how this personal data is processed.

Our services and courses are intended for adults aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly enrol children or intentionally collect personal data from people under the age of 18. If we become aware that such information has been provided to us in error and is not required for a lawful purpose, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

PFA provides professional finance and investment banking education to adult students and professionals.

We do not require students to disclose unnecessary personal or sensitive information in order to attend our courses.

Our aim is to collect only the information reasonably necessary to respond to enquiries, provide our courses and services, process purchases, support students and provide optional career and CV-related assistance.

If you provide information voluntarily that we have not requested, we will only use it where reasonably necessary and lawful.

Contact and enquiry information

This may include your name, email address, telephone number where provided, the subject and content of your enquiry and other information you voluntarily provide when contacting PFA.

Course and student information

When you enrol in or participate in a PFA course we may process your contact details, the course or programme purchased or attended, registration and attendance information, communications relating to your course, course completion information and information necessary to provide student support.

CV and professional information

You may voluntarily submit a CV to PFA for CV review, career guidance or related educational support. Your CV may contain information about your education, qualifications, employment or internship experience, professional skills and other career information that you choose to provide.

PFA does not ask you to include highly confidential or special-category information in your CV. Please do not include passport or identity-document numbers, bank details, medical information, ethnicity, religion, political opinions, trade-union membership, sexual orientation, criminal records or other sensitive information unless it is genuinely necessary and PFA has specifically requested it.

Purchase and transaction information

When you purchase a course or service we may retain your name, email address, billing information, the course or service purchased, transaction date, order information and information required for accounting purposes.

PFA does not store your full payment card number or card security code.

Technical information

Our systems may process limited technical information necessary for operation and security of the website, including IP address, browser and device information and relevant security logs.

Most information is provided directly by you. We may also receive limited information from payment providers or, where applicable, an organisation that has arranged training on your behalf.

We only process personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so.

Course enquiries
We process information to respond to requests for information and take steps requested by you before entering into a contract, and where appropriate on the basis of our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries about PFA services.

Courses and services
We process information necessary to register you for and provide a course or other PFA service in order to perform our contract with you.

CV review and career support
Where you ask us to review your CV or provide career-related assistance, we process the information necessary to provide the service you requested.

Orders and payments
We process transaction information to perform our contract with you and to comply with accounting, tax and other legal obligations.

Security and fraud prevention
We may process limited information where necessary to protect PFA, our students, our website and our systems against fraud, abuse and security threats.

Legal and regulatory requirements
We may process personal data where necessary to comply with law, respond to lawful requests or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

PFA does not use your CV, student information or course information to make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

CVs

CVs submitted to PFA are used for legitimate educational, career-support and related administrative purposes.

We may use your CV to provide CV review and feedback, understand your educational or professional background where relevant to the support requested and provide career-focused guidance connected with PFA services.

We do not sell CV information.

We will not provide your CV to prospective employers, recruitment firms or other third parties for recruitment purposes unless you have specifically requested or authorised us to do so.

Payments

Online card payments are currently processed using Stripe or PayPal. Stripe or PayPal may process information required to complete and secure a transaction, including payment information, transaction information and information used for fraud prevention.

PFA does not receive or store your complete payment-card number or card security code.

Other service providers

Where necessary, limited personal data may be processed by trusted organisations providing services to PFA, including website and hosting providers, email and IT providers, payment processors, professional advisers and technical service providers required to deliver our courses.

Personal data may also be disclosed to government bodies, regulators, courts or law-enforcement authorities where disclosure is required by law.

Where organisations process personal data on our behalf, appropriate contractual and security safeguards are used.

Marketing

Submitting an enquiry, purchasing a course or sending PFA a CV does not automatically constitute consent to receive marketing communications.

Where consent is required for marketing, PFA will ask you to opt in separately and the choice will be optional.

You can withdraw consent or unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time.

We may retain a minimal suppression record after you unsubscribe so that we can respect your request not to receive future marketing.

Cookies

The PFA website may use cookies or similar technologies that are strictly necessary for website operation, security, shopping-cart functionality, checkout and payment processing.

Where PFA uses non-essential cookies or similar technologies for purposes requiring consent, appropriate information will be provided and consent will be requested before those technologies are used.

Payment providers such as Stripe may use cookies or similar technologies necessary for secure payment processing and fraud prevention.

PFA uses appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, loss or destruction.

These measures include access controls, secure communications, account security, appropriate system maintenance and limiting access to personal data to people who reasonably require it for their work.

Payment information transmitted through our website uses secure encrypted connections and card processing is handled by our payment service provider.

No internet or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If PFA becomes aware of a personal-data breach, we will assess and respond to it in accordance with applicable UK data protection law.

Where information is processed

PFA is based in the United Kingdom.

Some technology, payment, email or other service providers used by PFA may process personal data in other countries.

Where personal data is transferred internationally and UK data protection law requires safeguards, PFA will use an appropriate lawful transfer mechanism, such as applicable UK adequacy regulations or recognised contractual safeguards.

How long we keep information

We keep personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and for applicable legal, accounting and contractual requirements.

General enquiries which do not result in a course or service are normally retained for no longer than 24 months after the last meaningful communication.

CVs submitted for review or career support are normally retained for up to 24 months after the last meaningful interaction or completion of the relevant PFA service, unless you request earlier deletion or a longer period is reasonably necessary for an ongoing service.

Course participation and student-support records are normally retained for up to 3 years after completion of the course unless a longer period is required for contractual, legal or certification purposes.

Order, invoice, accounting and transaction records may normally be retained for up to 6 years or for another period required by applicable tax, accounting or legal obligations.

Website and security logs are retained only for an appropriate operational and security period.

Privacy and data-protection requests may be retained for an appropriate period after the request is closed in order to demonstrate compliance.

We periodically review the information we hold and delete or anonymise information that is no longer required.

UK data protection law gives you a number of rights, depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis on which your information is processed.

These may include:

• The right to be informed about how your personal data is used
• The right to request access to personal data we hold about you
• The right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
• The right to request deletion of personal data in certain circumstances
• The right to request restriction of processing in certain circumstances
• The right to data portability where applicable
• The right to object to certain processing based on legitimate interests
• The absolute right to object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing
• The right to withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent

These rights are not absolute and certain legal exemptions may apply.

We may need to request reasonable additional information to confirm your identity before responding to some requests.

If you have concerns about how PFA has processed your personal data, please contact us using the dedicated Privacy & Data Protection form below so that we can investigate the matter.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's independent data protection regulator.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, technology, legal requirements or data-processing practices. The date of the latest revision will be shown at the top of this page.