Security Interests

UNCITRAL Colloquium: Navigating the new era of digital finance - The UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions on the use of new types of assets for secured financing

The United Nations Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade (New York, 2001) promotes the availability of capital and credit at more affordable rates across national borders, thus facilitating the cross-border movement of goods and services. In turn, the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions (2007) builds on this Convention. The Legislative Guide assists States in developing modern secured transactions laws, those related to transactions creating a security right in a movable asset, with a view to promoting the availability of secured credit. The UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions: Supplement on Security Rights in Intellectual Property (2010) supplements the Legislative Guide in developing laws that make credit more available and at a lower cost to intellectual property owners and other intellectual property rights holders. The UNCITRAL Guide on the Implementation of a Security Rights Registry (2013) builds on the Legislative Guide and its Supplement to assist States in the establishment of a publicly accessible registry in which information about the potential existence of a security right in a movable asset may be registered. In 2011, UNCITRAL approved the UNCITRAL, Hague Conference and Unidroit Texts on Security Interests to assist policymakers and legislators with comparison and analysis of major features of international instruments relating to secured transactions.

In 2016, UNCITRAL adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions (2016) to assist States in developing a modern secured transactions law dealing with security rights in movable assets and in 2017, the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions: Guide to Enactment (2017) to explain the thrust of the Model Law and its relationship with other UNCITRAL texts on secured transactions. In 2019, UNCITRAL adopted the Practice Guide to the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions, which illustrates the types of secured transactions that can be undertaken under the Model Law and provides step-by-step explanations of how to engage in the most common and commercially important secured transactions.