This notice covers applicants, employees, contractors and agency workers. It sits alongside the main privacy notice, which covers customers and website visitors.
What we collect
Only what the stage requires. We do not collect information we have no use for, and we say what each category is for.
| Category | Examples | When |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and contact | Name, email, telephone, address. | At application. |
| Application content | CV, work history, qualifications, your written answers. | At application. |
| Assessment records | Interview notes, exercise results, scores against the criteria. | During the process. |
| Right to work | Documents evidencing your right to work. | At offer stage. |
| Background checks | References, criminal records and financial probity checks where the role requires them. | After you accept an offer. |
| Diversity data | Optional, anonymised, aggregated for reporting only. | At application, entirely voluntary. |
| Employment records | Payroll, tax, benefits, absence, performance. | If you join us. |
Diversity monitoring is genuinely optional
It is separated from your application before anyone assesses you, and no hiring decision has access to it. Declining to answer has no effect whatsoever.
Why we hold it
- To run the recruitment process
- Assessing your application, arranging interviews, making a decision and telling you about it.
- To meet legal obligations
- Right-to-work checks, tax and payroll reporting, and the fitness and probity checks that regulated roles require.
- To protect the institution and customers
- Background screening proportionate to the role, particularly where it touches money or customer data.
- To improve how we hire
- Aggregate, anonymised analysis of where the process loses good candidates.
- With your consent
- Keeping your details for future roles, and any optional diversity data. Consent can be withdrawn at any time.
Who sees it
- The hiring team for the role: the recruiter, the hiring manager and the interviewers.
- Our applicant tracking system provider, under a contract that restricts them to processing on our instructions.
- Background screening providers, where the role requires checks, and only after you have accepted an offer.
- Payroll, benefits and pension administrators, if you join us.
- Regulators and law enforcement, where we are legally required to disclose.
We never sell it
Your application data is not sold, rented, or shared with recruiters outside the process you applied through. It is not used for marketing.
How long we keep it
| Situation | Retention |
|---|---|
| Unsuccessful applicant | 12 months from the decision, then deleted. |
| Unsuccessful applicant who consented to future contact | 24 months, then deleted unless you renew consent. |
| Withdrawn application | Deleted within 3 months of withdrawal. |
| Successful applicant | Transferred to your employment record. |
| Employment records after leaving | For the period required by employment, tax and regulatory law. |
| Diversity monitoring data | Held in aggregate only; individual responses are not retained against your record. |
Your rights
- Ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Ask us to correct anything inaccurate.
- Ask us to delete your data, where we have no overriding legal obligation to keep it.
- Withdraw consent where consent is what we relied on, including for future-role contact.
- Object to processing, or ask us to restrict it, in the circumstances the law provides.
- Ask for feedback on a decision, and for a human to review anything decided with automated assistance.
How to exercise them
Contact us and say what you want. We do not require a special form or a particular phrase, and we will not make it difficult.
Recruitment fraud
Fraudsters impersonate bank recruiters to harvest personal data or extract payments. Our process never includes any of the following.
- A fee, at any stage, for an application, a visa, equipment or training.
- A request for bank details before you have accepted a written offer through our own systems.
- An offer made without any interview.
- Contact only through a personal email address or a messaging app.
- A request to buy equipment yourself and be reimbursed.
If in doubt, verify
Contact us through the details on this website, not through the details in the message you received. Report anything suspicious to us — it helps protect the next candidate.
Documents you may also need
Experienced Hires
Joining us mid-career: which teams hire, what each interview stage actually assesses, how long it takes, and how offers are made.
CareersGraduates & Early Careers
The graduate programme, internships and apprenticeships: what the two years look like, what we assess, and how to apply without a finance degree.
Legal & RegulatoryPrivacy Statement
What personal data Optimal MetroHub Bank collects, why we need it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it.
This document was last updated on 1 August 2026. We publish the current version here at all times; superseded versions are available on request.
If anything on this page is unclear, write to us and we will explain it.