Citizens State Bank recognizes and respects our responsibility to protect our customers' private information. The success of a financial institution like ours depends heavily on the level of trust and confidence it enjoys with it's depositors and shareholders. In continuing our commitment to provide quality service to you, our customer, and maintain the confidentiality of customer information, the Board of Directors of Citizens State Bank have adopted the following privacy statement for officers, directors, and employees. This privacy statement applies to individuals, and Citizens State Bank reserves the right to amend it at any time.

Our Collection, Use and Retention of Customer Information - We collect, use and retain information about our customers only where we reasonably believe it would be useful in administering our business, providing products and services, and other opportunities to our customers. We use information to protect and administer customer records, accounts, and funds; to comply with certain laws and regulations; to help design or improve our products and services; and to understand your financial needs and provide you quality products and outstanding service. We collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources:

Information we receive from you on applications or other forms;

Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others;

Information we receive from a consumer credit reporting agency.

If you decide to close your account(s) or become an inactive customer, we will adhere to the privacy policies and practices as described in this notice. "Nonpublic personal information" is nonpublic information about you that we may obtain in connection with providing a financial product or service to you. This could include information such as account balances, payment history, and overdraft history. 

Our Maintenance of Accurate Information - We have implemented procedures to help assure that our customers' financial information is accurate, current, and complete in accordance with commercial standards. While some procedures are required by federal or state law, we also have procedures for responding to requests to correct inaccurate information in a timely manner, and to update information and remove old information. Please notify us immediately by phoning 712-324-2519 or 800-551-6308 or writing to Citizens State Bank, 808 Third Avenue, P.O. Box 130, Sheldon, Iowa 51201, if you receive information regarding your relationship with us that you believe to be inaccurate.

Limited Employee Access to Information - The importance of confidentiality and customer privacy is addressed in new staff orientation and in our standard policies. We restrict access to non-public personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information in order to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your nonpublic personal information. If necessary, appropriate disciplinary measures are taken to enforce employee privacy responsibilities.

Restrictions on the Disclosures of Account Information - We do not reveal specific information about our customers' accounts or other non-public personal information except as permitted by law unless (1) our customer has requested or authorized it; (2) the information is provided to help complete a transaction initiated by our customers; (3) the information is provided to a reputable credit bureau or similar information reporting agency; or (4) disclosure is lawfully required. However, we may disclose all of the information we collect, as described above to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements.

Maintaining Customer Privacy in Business Relationships with Outside Third Parties - At times it is necessary to provide non-public personal information about our customers to a third party, such as a vendor or service company we hire to provide support or services for one or more of our products. These vendors and service companies agree to safeguard our confidential customer information and must abide by applicable law.

We also provide information:

When you authorize us to release information;

To credit bureaus;

To other parties when it is necessary or helpful in completing a transaction, including other financial institutions and networks involved in processing your transactions;

To comply with a law, regulation, court order or subpoena;

To verify the existence of a customers' account and general information of a customers' account for a merchant or other financial institution;

In response to an inquiry about current sufficient funds to cover a check you have written;

To local, state, and federal authorities if we believe a crime may have been committed involving your account;

To paying agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, after the death or incapacity of a recipient or beneficiary of recurring direct deposits;

To our independent auditors, consultants or attorneys and to our regulators.

Citizens State Bank also has an on premise, full service brokerage service operated through third party vendors, Broker Dealer Financial Services Corp. (IBA Securities) collectively known as the Citizens Investment Center. In order to offer our customers product opportunities not available directly through the bank, we may share customer information with our local investment representative if we believe that it would benefit you. We may share:

Information we receive from you on applications or other forms;

Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others.

Our Internet Web Site - Visitors to the Citizens State Bank web site remain anonymous. We do not collect non-public personal information about site users, unless you choose to provide such information to us. Standard software is used to collect and store ONLY the following non-identifying information about our visitors: the name of the domain from which you access the Internet, (for example, aol.com if you are connecting from an America Online account, or iastate.edu if you are connecting from Iowa State University's domain); the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to our site. Visitors may elect to provide us with personal information via e-mail or our feedback form. This information is used internally, as appropriate, to handle the sender's request and manage the Citizens State Bank web site. It is not disseminated or sold to other organizations. Visitors should, however, keep in mind e-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. If you do not agree with the use of this information, or are not comfortable with the level of privacy, please cancel an e-mail before it is sent. Visitors should call us directly at 712-324-2519 or 800-551-6308 if requests or statements include sensitive or private information such as your account numbers, credit card numbers or social security number. Citizens State Bank will NEVER ask you for your Personal Identification Number (PIN) for your Citizens State Bank ATM card or ShazamChek debit card or MasterCard. If you are asked for this information, please call 712-324-2519 or 800-551-6308 and report it to a staff member immediately.

Protecting Children - Citizens State Bank does not knowingly solicit data from children, and we do not knowingly conduct on-line marketing to children. We recognize that protecting children's identities and privacy on-line is important and that the responsibility to do so rests with both the on-line industry and with parents.

If you believe Citizens State Bank has misused information obtained through our relationships with you or through our web site, or if you have questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy, please contact Heidi Nissen at 712-324-2519 or 800-551-6308 to resolve any disputes.