Last Updated July 18, 2025
First Reliance Bank (“Bank” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy and are committed to treating and using Personal Information (as defined below) about you responsibly.
This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) explains how we collect, use, and disclose Personal Information, from or about you in connection with our products and services, as well as when you use our websites that link to this Notice (each, a “Site”). Any references to “Personal Information” in this Notice shall mean: any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, to you. Personal Information does not include publicly available information (for example, information from federal, state, or local government records), “Aggregated Information” (information relating to multiple individuals that has been combined and grouped together, resulting in a data set that is not reasonably capable of identifying any individual) or “De-identified Information” (information that is not attributable to an identified or identifiable individual).
This Notice is intended for residents of the United States of America, and specifically the State of South Carolina where the Bank operates, and its branches are located. Residents of other states may have additional rights regarding the use of their Personal Information. If you are a resident of a state that grants such additional rights, please refer to the “Data Subject Rights” and “Exercising Data Subject Rights” sections below to learn more about potential rights you may have and how you can exercise them.
If you are an individual and have a Bank financial product or service for your personal, family or household purposes, please see the applicable Consumer Financial Privacy Notice for additional details about how we use and disclose Personal Information that we collect in connection with providing you those financial products or services.
This Notice applies to information we may receive, collect, or maintain about you when you visit our Site and through any forms or applications you may complete on it.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to information:
Users and visitors who link to third party websites (such as: the Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. payment portal accessible through the “Mortgage Payment” link, the Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. online payment portal accessible through the “Personal or Business Loan Payment” link, the MeridianLink, Inc. application form accessible through the “Open a Business or Personal Account” link, the saavymoney My Credit Score Tool, etc.) from the Site should check the privacy and security policy statements of such third-party websites to understand the policies and practices of such third-party websites, as we are not responsible for those policies and practices. If you disclose your information to third parties on other websites on the internet, you do so at your own risk, as different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of such information.
If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is to not use our Site. By accessing or using this Site, the products and services provided on or through the Site and/or any of its functionalities provided on or through the Site, you agree to this Notice. If you do not agree with the terms set out in this Notice, please do not visit the Site, or provide us with any information about you, and please delete any cookies placed on your web browser and/or hard drive by the Site.
We may collect or be provided with the following categories of Personal Information about you when you use our Site and depending on how you use our Site. To understand how we collect, use and disclose your Personal Information, please see the “How we Collect, Use, and Disclose Personal Information” section below.
If you visit the Site for general information purposes or to learn more about the services and products, we offer but not to log-in to your online banking account or carry out banking activities (e.g., mortgage or loan payments, opening a bank account, etc.) with us (“Visitor”), we, entities that we contract with to provide services to support our business and delivery of our products and services (“Service Providers”), or other entities that we work with who are not Service Providers, such as credit bureaus or marketing partners (“Third Parties”) may collect the following categories of information about you:
If you are a customer or user of the Bank’s services or products offered through the Site, open a banking, checking or savings account through the Site, apply for a mortgage, loan, or credit card through the Site, order checks through the Site, and/or register for or use your online banking account on our Site (“User”), in addition to the categories of information collected from Visitors, above, we, our Service Providers, and/or our Third Parties may also collect the following categories or information about you:
Through your online banking account, you may be able to send messages to us though an online form. The online form includes an open text field where you have the opportunity to provide us with any information you choose and an opportunity to attach any documents you wish to provide us, which may include additional categories of Personal Information than the categories listed above (such as health or medical diagnosis information). You acknowledge and agree that any information or documents that you provide, is at your sole discretion and risk. The Bank highly recommends that you carefully consider what information or document you are providing to the Bank and not provide any information, including Personal Information, that you wish to keep confidential or are not comfortable providing us.
Please note that if you have beneficiaries, additional account holders, or additional applicants, you may be asked to provide and we may need to collect the same categories of information regarding such beneficiaries, additional account holders, or additional applicants (“Third-Party Information”). By providing any Third-party Information, you represent and warrant to the Bank that:
In the event, the owner of the Third-Party Information or the parent or legal guardian of a Minor Party subsequently withdraws his/her authorization or consent to use the Third-Party Information for the purposes you provided, or we collected such Third-Party Information, you agree to immediately inform us of such revocation.
You further agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Bank from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages and expenses relating to or arising out of or related to:
Whether you are a Visitor or User, if you contact us through the Site for customer service purposes, our digital customer service application may collect the following categories of information from you:
Additionally, if you are a User, depending on your inquiries we may also collect the following categories of information from you to provide you with the customer service you request:
Please note that while the Bank’s digital customer service application may only request the above categories of data, the application provides an open text field for you to communicate with it. The open text field allows you to type and provide any information you choose, including additional categories of Personal Information than the categories listed above (such as health or medical diagnosis information). As the Bank does not require such information, it may not be aware that you have provided such information. You acknowledge and agree that any information that you provide, is at your sole discretion and risk, and you are not required to provide any additional information other than those categories listed above, which may be requested by the Bank. The Bank highly recommends that you carefully consider what information you are providing to the Bank’s digital customer service application and only provide Personal Information that is specifically requested by such digital customer service application, and you are comfortable providing to us.
The types of Personal Information we collect depends on your interaction with us, including the types of products or services you applied for or use. We, or our Service Providers, may collect Personal Information:
We (or our Service Providers) may also collect the categories of information listed in Section II.A under the “General Visitor” section, about you directly or indirectly through interactions with our Sites, or ads (“Online Information”). Though Online Information may not, alone, reveal your specific identity, some of this information may be used or associated with Personal Information, or may itself be considered Personal Information (such as IP address). The purpose of collecting this information is to improve the effectiveness of our Sites and product offerings. The collection of this information also allows for the compilation of De-identified and Aggregated Information that can help us improve our Sites and product offerings.
We may use Personal Information for the following business purposes:
In some cases, you may be asked to provide certain information necessary to provide access to or use of our Site, and/or the services, products or functionalities provided through our Site. In these cases, if you do not provide us with the requested information, you may be unable to use our Site or the services, products or functionalities provided through our Site.
We may disclose your personal information to certain parties for business or marketing purposes or as may be legally required, subject to your right to opt-out of certain disclosures. For more on your personal information opt-out rights, see the “Choices Related To How We Use Personal Information” section below.
The Bank may share your Personal Information in the following ways:
With respect to certain products or services you may choose to avail through our Site, we use a third-party service provider as a payment intermediary service to process credit and debit card transactions (the “Payment Processor”). By using any products or services on the Site that requires you to submit payments through the Payment Processor, you agree to be bound by the Payment Processor’s agreements or policies (including privacy notices of the Payment Processor) applicable to such Payment Processor’s service to facilitate payments. We do not collect or store any of your financial information, such as your debit or credit card account numbers, that you provide to the Payment Processor. You expressly understand and agree that we are not responsible for the use of your information (including Personal Information) by the Payment Processor to facilitate any payments and monetary transactions that occur through your use of the Payment Processor. You are responsible for all transactions processed through the Site and/or Payment Processor and provide any information (including Personal Information) to the Payment Processor at your own discretion. Before using such a Payment Processor, we recommend you review any agreement (including any terms of use), or policies (including any privacy notices) provided by the Payment Processor and make sure you agree with such agreements and policies.
Our Sites may contain links to other parties’ websites (such as: the Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. payment portal accessible through the “Mortgage Payment” link, the Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. online payment portal accessible through the “Personal or Business Loan Payment” link, the MeridianLink, Inc. application form accessible through the “Open a Business or Personal Account” link, the saavymoney My Credit Score Tool, etc.). When you click on these links, you may be providing information, including Personal Information, to the other party, us, or both. We have no control over the privacy practices or content of these linked websites, so we recommend that you carefully review the privacy notice or statements of every other party’s website that you visit. If you disclose your information to other websites on the internet, you do so at your own risk as different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of such information.
We retain Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which they were obtained unless a longer retention period is required by law. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include:
Our Sites are not intended for children under eighteen (18) years of age, and we do not knowingly market our products or services to children.
Visit the Federal Trade Commission website for more information about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you believe we might have any mistakenly or accidentally collected information or unauthorized information from or about children under the age of 18, please contact us at: CustomerCare@firstreliance.com.
The Site use cookies and related technologies, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Users and Visitors have a variety of tools to control the use of cookies, pixels, online identifiers, and similar technologies, including browser controls to block and delete them. Disabling or blocking these technologies, however, may prevent or impair required functionality and use of the Site and its functionalities. Please see the Bank’s “Cookie Policy”, if you would like to learn more about our use of cookies and types of data we collect through cookies.
You have choices about how we use your information, including what kinds of marketing you want to receive from us.
If you do not want us to disclose your Personal Information to Third Parties for promotional purposes, you can opt out by sending us an email with your request to CustomerCare@firstreliance.com or calling us at: 888.543.5510.
If you do not wish to have your email address or contact information used by the Bank to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can opt out by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in any promotional email we send you, by sending us an email stating your request to CustomerCare@firstreliance.com, or by calling us at: 888.543.5510. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. This opt-out does not apply to information provided to the Bank as a result of a product purchase, product service experience, or other transactions.
Although we do not “sell” or “share” Personal Information for money, we engage in routine online activities (such as targeted or cross-contextual advertising) with Third Parties in ways that could be considered a “sale” or “sharing” as defined under applicable privacy laws. Such activities may include displaying advertising to you based on Personal Information obtained or inferred from your activities over time across different websites, applications, and other online services we do not operate
If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver targeted or cross-contextual advertising to you, you can opt out by sending us an email at: CustomerCare@firstreliance.com, or by calling us at: 888.543.5510. You may still see advertisements while you are browsing online; however, the advertisements you see may be less relevant to you and your interests.
Please note that if you opt-out of our use of your information for the marketing and promotional purposes stated above, we will still contact you for transactional purposes, such as to service your account or respond to an inquiry. Even if you opt out of marketing emails from us, we will continue to send you important administrative messages.
Do not track is a privacy preference that you can set in your web browser. We currently do not employ technology that changes how our servers treat your browser if our servers receive a “do-not-track” signal from your browser since there is currently no universal standard on how to apply these settings.
If available on your web browser, you may set your browser or device to send an opt-out preference signal, such as through Global Privacy Control, to signal a request to opt-out of the sharing of your Personal Information. We honor these requests to the extent we are able to, based on the information provided via the signal. Note that we may not be able to tie a browser or device-based preference signal request to all Personal Information we have about you.
State consumer privacy laws may provide their residents with additional rights regarding the use of their personal information. The exact scope of these rights may vary by state.
This section describes these rights and how you can exercise them. Please note that these laws may provide limitations or exceptions to these rights. We have described these rights generally without noting all applicable jurisdictions, limitations, or exceptions. When you request to exercise any of these rights, we may provide more detailed information regarding any exceptions or limitations that apply.
California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Site who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to: CustomerCare@firstreliance.com, or by call us at: 888.543.5510.
Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California users are entitled to the following consumer rights notice: California residents may reach the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services for the California Department of Consumer Affairs by mail at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.
Nevada residents who wish to exercise their sale opt-out rights under Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A may submit a request by sending an email to: CustomerCare@firstreliance.com, or by calling us at: 888.543.5510.
The exact scope of these rights may vary by the state in which you reside. Except as otherwise noted above, to exercise any of the above rights or if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please submit them through our email address at: CustomerCare@firstreliance.com, or by calling us at: 888.543.5510.
To protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access and use, we use reasonable and appropriate security measures designed to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of data used by or transmitted to or from our Site. Our measures include technical (e.g., computer safeguards) and physical (e.g., secured files and buildings) measures. Only those individuals who have a legitimate business reason in connection with their job responsibilities are permitted to access customer information.
However, no data transmissions over the Internet are guaranteed to be completely secure. While we strive to protect your data from unauthorized use or disclosure, the Bank does not warrant or guarantee the security of the data that you provide; any transmission is at your own risk.
Additionally, you acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID, or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password protected or secure areas of the Site. We may suspend your access and use to the Site, in part or completely, if we suspect a breach of security, in order to protect you and your data.
We reserve the right to modify, amend or cancel this Notice at any time to reflect changes in the law, or data collection and use practices, the features of our services or Site, or advances in technology. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. Additionally, we will post a message on our Site as a banner at the top of the Site informing you if this Notice changes. You are responsible for periodically visiting our Site and this Notice to check for any changes. Your use of the Site following any such change constitutes your agreement that all information collected from or about you after the revised Notice is posted will be subject to the terms of the revised Notice.
If you have questions or concerns about the Bank’s privacy practices or this Notice, please contact us:
2170 West Palmetto St.
Florence, SC 29501
Telephone: 888.543.5510
Email: CustomerCare@firstreliance.com
ND:4923-6853-1279, v. 5