We take the utmost care to maintain the confidentiality of your private information. We may share information about you with our subsidiaries, affiliated companies and business partners as described below in order to provide better service; “Information” means nonpublic, personal information.

Information about YOU may routinely be collected or retained that includes your:

We collect information from consumer reporting agencies regarding credit and checking account histories. To serve you better, we may retain the types of products and services you purchase from us to know about your financial needs and interests. We only share information with others in accordance with our information sharing policies and practices as listed in the following paragraphs.

Safeguarding Information About YOU

Information that we have about you is available to our employees and agents on a “need to know” basis so they can perform their jobs. We prohibit our employees and agents from giving information about you to anyone in a manner that would violate any applicable law or our privacy policy. We do not provide information about you to anyone without first verifying who they are and whether they may have legal access to the information. We train our employees to protect information we have about you. We also have a disaster preparedness program to secure this information in case of natural disasters, hazards or threats. Our security and confidentiality procedures are periodically reviewed and tested to make sure they are effective.

Account Numbers/Access Codes

We will not disclose your account number or access code for a credit card account, deposit account or transaction account to a nonaffiliated third party in order for them to sell you products or services. We may give your account number or access code to consumer reporting agencies, such as Credit Bureaus, as we are allowed or are required to do so by law.

Information Sharing – Affiliates

We may share information with affiliates and subsidiary in order to offer you additional products and services. Subsidiaries are companies we own or control, such as the Trust Department. Affiliates are other companies that are commonly owned or controlled by our parent holding company. Our parent company currently does not own or control any companies other than Merchants and Farmers Bank.

Information about you may be obtained from companies or persons outside our affiliates. We may share this “other information” among our affiliates.

Information Sharing – Agent Nonaffiliated Companies

We may share information about you with certain nonaffiliated companies that are our agents. We do this to provide convenient access to products or services, or because these companies help us perform necessary business functions or services. Laws permit this sharing. All agents are required by law or otherwise contractually obligated to Merchants and Farmers Bank to strictly maintain the confidentiality of your information. Such agents would include but not limited to companies that process credit card, ATM and credit life transactions and computer venders.

Information Sharing – Nonagent, Nonaffiliated Companies/Persons

We do not share information about you with non-agent, nonaffiliated companies and persons (companies and person that are not owned or controlled by us) or that are not commonly owned or controlled by our parent holding company. We do not intend to share such information in the future either. However, should we so decide to share such information with these entities, you will be notified in advance in order to have the option of opting out of our sharing of such information with such non-agent, nonaffiliated companies/persons.

Your Opt-Out Rights

At present you do not need to opt-out of any information sharing, since we do not share such information with non-agent, nonaffiliated companies.

Should we decide to share information with any of the below identified entities, you may opt-out of:

• Our sharing of “other information” about you with our affiliates under the Federal Fair Credit Reports Act; and
• Our sharing of information about you with non-agent, nonaffiliated companies and persons.

You would then have the opportunity to opt-out of all or some of this information sharing at any time.

Ending Your Customer Relationship

If your customer relationship with us comes to an end, we will treat the information we have about you as if you were still our customer.

Security

As we continue to make your confidentiality a top priority, we have found that ultimately protecting your privacy must be a partnership between you and Merchants and Farmers Bank. Here are some steps that you can take to help safeguard your personal information. The steps provided below may not pertain to your specific account with us.

• Never give out personal information, Social Security Number or account numbers, over the phone or internet unless you initiate the call or you are certain the web site is legitimate.
• Keep personal information safe: Tear up or shred receipts, bank statements and unused credit card offers before discarding them.
• Minimize the number of credit cards you carry.
• Protect your Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) and passwords. Don’t use your social security number as PIN numbers.
• Guard your mail from theft. It is possible someone may change your billing address. If a statement, check, or bill is missing, contact your service provider immediately. Pay attention to billing cycles. Use Bill Payment rather than mail to minimize personal information sent through the mail.
• Make sure you do business with reputable companies, especially on the Internet.
• Order and check your credit report annually. Report and correct any mistakes.
• Report any suspected fraud immediately. Notify the fraud divisions of the three major reporting bureaus: Trans Union (800)916-8800 or click www.transunion.com, Experian (888)397-3742 or click www.experian.com and Equifax (800) 525-6285 or click www.equifax.com.

Contacts

Your business --- and your trust --- is important to us at Merchants and Farmers Bank. If you ever have any questions or concerns about the privacy of your account information, please call Ashton Adcock, Chief Operations Officer & Security Officer or J. Michael Jones, President and CEO at (870) 382-4311. You may email us at mfbdumas@mfbanknet.com, write us or stop by to discuss your questions. We look forward to working together to ensure your personal information remains private.