In its current form, the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) does little to accommodate emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens.  In efforts to modernize and adapt the Uniform Commercial Code to newer technologies, the Uniform Law Commission (the “ULC”) and the American Law Institute have jointly sponsored the drafting of proposed extensive amendments to

On Friday, the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) finalized a regulation regarding the “Permissible Interest on Loans that are Sold, Assigned, or Otherwise Transferred” by national banks and federal savings associations. Initially proposed in November 2019, the regulation provides that interest on a loan that is permissible under provisions of

Last October we highlighted an important ruling issued in September 2019 by the Seventh Circuit in the bankruptcy proceeding of In re I80 Equipment, LLC.  The Circuit Court in that case reversed a decision from the lower bankruptcy court and held that, under Article 9 of the UCC, a financing statement sufficiently indicates collateral even though it contains no actual collateral description but rather incorporates a collateral description by reference to an unattached security agreement. In re I80 Equip., LLC, 938 F.3d 866, 871-72 (7th Cir. 2019).  We noted that this decision put the Seventh Circuit directly at odds with the First Circuit, which ruled to the contrary in January 2019 in the bankruptcy proceeding for Puerto Rico (In re Financial Oversight & Management Board).
Continue Reading Bankruptcy trustee appeals Seventh Circuit’s ruling on sufficiency of UCC collateral description to US Supreme Court

In a surprising development, on September 11, 2019 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on appeal reversing a lower bankruptcy court decision and found that a UCC financing statement that contained no collateral information whatsoever, but simply cross-referenced a security agreement, sufficiently “indicated” the collateral for purposes of UCC Article 9. In so doing, it put itself directly at odds with a January 2019 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (In re Financial Oversight & Management Board)” in connection with the insolvency proceeding for Puerto Rico.
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit issues surprising ruling on sufficiency of UCC collateral description