Updated: March 2025
Reviewed by: Fundserv Chief Privacy Officer
Reviewed: March 2025
This privacy notice provides an overview of how we interact with your personal information at Fundserv and describes our commitment to maintaining the privacy, security, and confidentiality of personal information.
Fundserv has established practices and procedures to ensure the protection of personal information. Specifically, Fundserv maintains policies, and procedures according to our obligations as per applicable privacy laws, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) (“PIPEDA”).
If after reading this privacy notice you have questions or concerns, please contact the Fundserv Privacy Office, privacy@fundserv.com.
This privacy notice should be read alongside our Cookie Policy, which describes how Fundserv uses cookies to run our website. This privacy notice is subject to change in response to changes in laws and/or periodic reviews of Fundserv operations. At minimum this privacy notice will be reviewed and approved annually by the Fundserv Chief Privacy Officer.
What is personal information?
Personal information is information about you, which could be used to identify you directly or indirectly.
Personal information can include a name, contact information, health information, social insurance number, banking information, driver’s license number, health card number, passport information, financial transactions — basically any information about you.
Personal information typically does not include business contact information such as business address, business title, business email, business phone number – this also applies if you use your residence as your address for your business.
Who we are
Fundserv is the indispensable connectivity hub for the Canadian investment industry. Headquartered in Toronto, we electronically connect Manufacturers, Distributors, and Intermediaries (our members), enabling them to buy, sell, and transfer investment funds. With more than 100 employees, Fundserv serves hundreds of members and provides online access to more than 100,000 investment fund products.
Fundserv processes data and transfers for members as a centralized data sharing hub, sending fund transaction information seamlessly between members. Members act as data controllers directing Fundserv, who acts as a data processor, to provide a platform and services for those members, who include Distributors, Intermediaries and Carrying Brokers, and Manufacturers.
Fundserv processes data on behalf of:
- Distributors: are financial institutions with advisors who buy, sell and transfer investment funds on behalf of investors. Through our network, they have access to products from more than 400 institutions who manufacture funds for the Canadian investment industry.
- Intermediaries and Carrying Brokers: are organizations that offer services to Distributors who outsource management of certain accounts to other Distributors.
- Manufacturers: are investment fund companies that develop the products sold by Distributors in the Canadian investment industry. These organizations join Fundserv to make their products available to the more than 300 Distributors on the network.
What does this mean to me as an individual investor?
Fundserv acts as the intermediary between members to help flow financial transactions, facilitate money movement for financial transactions, flow account updates, and communicate transaction/account reconciliation files between members. You as the investor meet with a financial advisor to help you achieve your goals, like buying a house or retiring. Often the financial plan includes mutual funds. Transaction requests for mutual funds are sent from the financial advisor company to Fundserv and we route the order on to the appropriate fund company. We also support the moving of your money from your account to fund companies.
What categories of personal information does Fundserv collect?
For individual investors, we collect the personal information that your Distributor provides to us, including all information required for us to process your mutual fund transaction. For website visitors, we may collect information about how you use our website. For more information about the tools we use to collect information about how you use our website, please see our Cookie Policy. Finally, we may also collect any other information you provide to us when you contact us directly.
Does that mean Fundserv has copies of my investment information and access to my personal information?
In limited cases, like when individuals visit our website, Fundserv will collect personal information (like your IP address and location information) directly from you. However, in most cases Fundserv does not directly collect personal information from individual investors. Your personal information is submitted by members, i.e., your service provider, and is packaged in a file. Limited employees have access to this file to confirm that transactions have been processed correctly.
Fundserv generally retains a copy of your file for a period of less than 90 days. This is to confirm that transactions have been processed correctly.
Once your personal information has met its retention period, it will be securely destroyed or anonymized. If you are located outside Quebec, your information could also be de-identified at the end of the retention period. Fundserv may retain de-identified information for business purposes; however, through a rigorous process, we take steps to minimize the risk that the information can be used to re-identify you.
There may be circumstances required by law where Fundserv needs to keep your information for a longer period in accordance with our record retention policies.
How does Fundserv use personal information?
Fundserv uses data received from members, which may include personal information, to provide services to members. More specifically, we may use personal information to:
- Process transactions and enable the use of Services;
- Conduct audits, including of transactions and network activity;
- Provide technical support and respond to inquiries, including from members or individuals to whom information relates;
- Store data, which may include personal information, and keep records of our processing activities;
- Comply with any legal obligations that apply to Fundserv in connection with our Services and websites;
- Provide notices and updates about our services or send other communications that are relevant to the use of our services; and
- Protect members and individuals by enhancing our ability to detect and prevent fraud and potentially unlawful activities in connection with our services and to enforce our rights.
Please note that Fundserv does not use personal information to render decisions about individuals based exclusively on the automated processing of such information.
Does Fundserv share my personal information with third-party organizations?
There are limited circumstances where Fundserv may share your personal information with third parties. This includes:
- Situations where Fundserv is required or permitted by law to share the information, for example, in connection with a law enforcement investigation or under the authority of a court order or for other legal purposes.
- Disclosures to a regulatory agency, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
- Fundserv may use sub processors to use their third-party tools and expertise to operate or improve our services.
- Purposes related to insurance coverage.
- If Fundserv was ever in the process of being sold or experiencing a reorganization in the type of business that we perform.
When we store your information or engage a service provider that operates outside of Canada, personal information may be stored, processed, accessed, or used in another country. In that case, your personal information may be subject to the law of the jurisdiction in which it is used or stored, including any law permitting or requiring the disclosure of the information to a government, government agency, court, or law enforcement agency of that jurisdiction. Fundserv stores data on servers in Canada and the United States. The countries in which our service providers operate are Canada and the United States.
For Quebec residents: please note that your information may be stored outside of Quebec.
How does Fundserv protect my personal information?
Fundserv uses a variety of industry standard technical, physical, and administrative safeguards to protect confidential information including personal information. Technical safeguards refer to network security protections like firewalls, physical safeguards refer to physical protections like locked doors and security cameras, and administrative safeguards refers to policies and procedures like mandatory training and password policies. All our mobile devices are encrypted, and password protected. Fundserv limits access to personal information to only those employees who require access. All employees receive privacy training. There are policies and procedures which address confidentiality incidents, data protection, right of access and data retention. Fundserv completes an annual external audit to review our security/privacy policies, practices, and other safeguards.
How does Fundserv ensure it has my consent to process my personal information?
The service provider that submits your information to Fundserv for processing is responsible for ensuring they obtain your consent to do so. If you have questions or concerns about consenting to Fundserv processing your personal information, please contact your service provider.
I am a member of Fundserv. Where do I find information on Fundserv privacy practices?
In the Getting Started Package, you will find a copy of the data protection schedule which provides information on privacy practices employed by Fundserv to protect member information and provides information on compliance with applicable privacy laws. Fundserv completes an annual external audit to review our security/privacy policies, practices, and other safeguards. As a member you may request a copy of the audit by contacting our Privacy Office at privacy@fundserv.com.
Who can I contact with privacy questions, comments, and concerns?
Please contact the Fundserv Privacy Office with any questions, concerns, or comments on our privacy practices.
To submit a request for any rights you may have under applicable privacy legislation, such as the right to request access to or correction of your personal information, or the right to obtain your personal information in a structured, commonly used technological format (only for individuals in Quebec), please submit these requests to your service provider (Fundserv member). To discuss this process with Fundserv or receive clarification on where to submit your request, please contact our Privacy Office. We would be happy to assist.
We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The current privacy notice will be effective when posted. Please check this privacy notice periodically for updates. If any of the changes are unacceptable to you, you should cease interacting with us. When required under applicable law, we will notify you of any changes to this privacy notice by posting an update on our website.
Our offices are located:
Attn: Privacy Office
Fundserv Inc.
333 Bay St., Suite 2600
Toronto, ON
M5H 2R2 Canada
Email: privacy@fundserv.com
Cookie Policy
Updated: April 2024
Reviewed by: Fundserv Chief Privacy Officer
Reviewed: March 2025
This cookie policy is subject to change in response to changes in laws, advances in technology and/or periodic reviews of Fundserv operations.
This cookie policy applies to https://www.fundserv.com/ (the Website) and all its subdomains, including the Fundserv Connect portal. The cookie policy should be read along with the Fundserv Privacy Policy, which describes how Fundserv collects, uses, and discloses personal information. Please note that non-identifiable information collected from the Website may be disclosed to others where required or permitted by applicable law, for example if requested by a regulator, and may be permanently archived for future use.
Introduction
Cookies are small pieces of data (text files) that are saved on your computer or mobile device when you visit our Website so that information can be saved between visits. Cookies are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to website owners. We use cookies in numerous ways, such as to:
- identify users;
- remember your settings and preferences;
- analyze website traffic; and
- track users’ browsing behaviour.
What are session and persistent cookies?
Cookies that expire at the end of a browser session (normally when a user exits their browser) are called “session” (or “temporary” cookies). Cookies that can be stored for longer on your device are called “persistent” (or “permanent” cookies) and will stay on your device until you delete them manually or your browser deletes them after a set period. Persistent cookies include those that allow our Website to ‘save’ a username, so that the visitor does not have to enter their username each time they interact with the login page.
What are first-party and third-party cookies?
Cookies that are set by us are called first-party cookies, and cookies set by a different company than Fundserv are called third-party cookies. Third-party cookies are typically used when the website incorporates elements from other websites, such as images, social media plug-ins or advertising. When the browser or other software retrieves these elements from the other websites, it can set cookies.
What cookies does Fundserv use and how does Fundserv use these cookies?
Our Website uses the following types of cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary for our Website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you, which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but that will cause some parts of the Websites to not function properly.
| Cookie provider | Name of cookie | Function | First party or third party | Duration of cookie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundserv | Session ID | This cookie stores information such as the user’s input and tracks the movements of the user within the website. There is no other information stored in the session cookie | First party | Once the user leaves the website or closes their browser window. It is a temporary cookie. |
Performance cookies
These cookies gather information about how visitors use the Websites and monitor the Websites’ performance. For example, performance cookies tell us which pages are popular, monitor traffic to our Website and compile anonymous analytic information. Performance cookies can also be used to identify and remedy operational problems with the Website.
The specific information that Fundserv uses from Google Analytics is:
- number of visitors to the fundserv.com Website
- session statistics, i.e., how long an individual spends on the fundserv.com Website
- approximate geolocation of the visitor
- browser and device information, i.e., whether the visitor is using a mobile or desktop and if they are using Chrome or Microsoft Edge
For more information, please visit the Google analytics support site.
| Cookie provider | Name of cookie | Function | First party or third party | Duration of cookie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | _ga_89ELDC2RS8 | This cookie is used by Google Analytics to persist session state | First party | 1 year 1 month |
| Google Analytics | _gat_UA-186732774-1 | This is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. | First party | 53 seconds |
| Google Analytics | _gid | This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews. | First party | 1 day |
| Google Universal Analytics | _ga | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. | First party | 1 year 1 month |
| Fundserv | Visitor ID | This is a cookie pattern that appends a unique identifier for a website visitor. | First party | 1 year 1 month |
Fundserv primarily uses third-party cookies through Google Analytics to collect information, in an anonymous form, about how visitors use the Website. Fundserv uses the information collected by Google Analytics to improve our services and in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Functionality cookies
These cookies are used to recognize and remember your preferences. For example, functionality cookies may use information, such as your language preferences, to make sure that you arrive at a version of our Website that will provide you with a continuous experience.
The Fundserv Connect portal collects first-party cookies that are necessary to enable the Website and its components to function properly and to enable certain security measures (e.g., to prevent unauthorized logins), for analytics, and to improve our services and in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
| Cookie provider | Name of cookie | Function | First party or third party | Duration of cookie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundserv | ZNPCQ003-35383900 | Stores the visitor’s username to the Fundserv Connect portal so that they do not have to enter their username each time they visit the portal. | First party | 1 year |
| Fundserv | FS_CONNECT_LANG | Stored language preferences | First party | Session |
Targeting cookies
Our Website does not use targeting cookies.
Can I opt-out of cookies?
You may choose to decline cookies if your browser permits, but doing so may affect your use of the Website and your ability to access certain features of the Website.
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is installed, or you can choose to disable all cookies. You do this through your Internet browser (for example, Microsoft Edge or Chrome) settings. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. Each browser is slightly different, therefore please check your browser’s Help menu to learn how to modify your cookie settings.
If you wish to opt-out of the use of Google Analytics, please visit Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
For any questions or concerns, please contact the Fundserv Privacy Office by email at privacy@fundserv.com.