Risk Management Blog

Today, more than ever, lenders are focused on minimizing their risks when entering a financial transaction. As pandemic impacts continue to mitigate, many financial institutions are now reducing their risk forecast for loan defaults. The upbeat sentiments are welcome but the times remain unprecedented, and uncertainty remains on what lies ahead. Two key components in the lenders’ due diligence process when entering a transaction… >> READ MORE

A UCC report will look different and may contain slightly different information depending on where the search was performed and by whom. As a result, it can be challenging to make sense of a UCC search report if you are unfamiliar with how to “read” it. Knowing that an accurate interpretation of the UCC data that is reported to you is critical to the success of your business, we offer the following tips for how to read a UCC search report. Review… >> READ MORE

A UCC1 financing statement is effective for a period of five years. A record that is not continued before its lapse date will cease to be effective, costing the secured party their perfected status and perhaps their priority position to collect. Once a financing statement has lapsed, it cannot be revived. If the underlying security agreement endures, a secured party should work with their legal or risk management department to determine… >> READ MORE

As the U.S struggles toward economic recovery, most local governments are really feeling the pinch. State and county-level governments face overwhelming budget shortfalls, dramatically impacting their ability to deliver timely public services. These budget woes often translate into slowed turn around times for public record information requests and document filings. In this blog post, we will discuss three strategies for getting your hands… >> READ MORE

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision last week that may affect how secured parties authorize third parties to terminate financing statements after a mistakenly authorized UCC termination statement cost the secured party $1.5 billion. This decision underscores the value of UCC lien monitoring services: where secured parties can monitor their own UCC’s for unauthorized or accidental terminations. Also,… >> READ MORE

We are building resources for you!  This week we have added web-links to all the Secretary of State offices under our Resources page.  Much like our Business Entity Search webpage from last week, you do not have to conduct multiple searches, or websites to find what you need.  We have it all on one page. Please let us know what government agencies you search most so that we can prioritize adding them. You may also contact our Legal… >> READ MORE

It’s not common knowledge, common in the way everyone knows how a Federal tax lien can prime a perfected security interest. But it’s true. Check out this article from Pahl McCay’s Catherine Robertson discussing the subject. Her final recommendation can be found at the end of her article, “we recommend you maintain a monitoring service for lien filings against your debtors.” The critical aspect here is that the monitoring… >> READ MORE

Searching the correct party and correct legal name is imperative when coordinating due diligence search efforts. It is important to search all names under which liens could be filed. This may seem simple and obvious, but keep in mind that liens, particularly involuntary liens like federal tax liens and judgment liens, could be filed under business names, individual names, aliases, nicknames, or even fictitious business names. So, how… >> READ MORE

With the holiday season upon us, end of year deadlines and commitments drive activity. So much still to do! One of the to dos we all have is to make our plans for the next year. We review systems and solutions and processes and procedures with an eye on fixing any breakdowns that have been experienced and determining if any changes need to be made. When it comes to evaluating your UCC management, you need a UCC service partner that supports… >> READ MORE

The pandemic has caused much uncertainty in the lending ecosystem and will continue to do so since most industry experts expect an uptick in loan defaults. Today, more than ever, lenders are focused on minimizing their risks when entering a financial transaction. Two key components in the lenders’ due diligence process when entering a transaction are conducting consensual and non-consensual lien searches, and filing a UCC-1 against… >> READ MORE