OKLAHOMA CITY, Oct. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BancFirst has been selected as one of the top financial institutions in America by Carnegie Mellon University. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon studied and reviewed the consumer privacy practices of 3,422 banks for their data collection policy, as well as sharing and selling customer data for marketing purposes.  According to the study released in June, BancFirst was selected as one of the top banks in the nation based on how it handles personal information collected, and how it protects the privacy of its customers.

Based on the Carnegie Mellon research, Forbes Magazine also listed BancFirst as a national leader in customer privacy.  In an article written for Forbes by leading personal business data collection expert Adam Tanner from Harvard University, Tanner notes the excellent privacy policies of the top banks and explains why the privacy ranking is so important, "Banks have deep insights into our lives not only because they have our money, but also because they issue most of our credit and credit cards." (Forbes.com, What Chase And Other Banks Won't Tell You About Selling Your Data, October 17, 2013) Forbes has separately recognized BancFirst as one of the "Best Banks In America" for the past two years, based on its financial performance.

"We never share personal information about our customers at BancFirst," said David Rainbolt, BancFirst Corporation CEO.  "We believe financial information belongs to our customers and is not ours to distribute."  

How financial institutions handle customer privacy is mandated by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.  The Carnegie Mellon study found many financial institutions in partial or complete violation of this law, freely sharing or selling some, if not all, of their customer data and for the level of difficulty in customer opt-out options.  BancFirst, ranked high in the study because of its tightly controlled and strictly implemented policy of not sharing customer information with affiliates or selling customer information for marketing purposes.

About BancFirst With assets of more than $5.8 billion, BancFirst is Oklahoma's largest state-chartered bank. BancFirst has more than 100 locations in 50 communities across the state. BancFirst is listed on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol BANF.  More information can be found at www.bancfirst.com.

SOURCE BancFirst

RELATED LINKShttps://www.bancfirst.com