Secured Transactions - April 2013

The Department of International Law initiates collaboration with the United Nations and other Organizations on Secured Transactions Reform

The twenty-third session of the Working Group VI (Security Interests) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) was held at the New York headquarters from 8 to 12 April 2013.

The Department of International Law (DIL) of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs of the Organization of American States attended the session as an observer and participated in the deliberations. As part of the OAS/CIDA Cooperation Plan for 2012-2015, the DIL is in charge of the OAS Secured Transactions Project aimed at implementing secured transactions reform, based on the Model Inter-American Law on Secured Transactions, its Model Registry Regulations and other international instruments on the topic.

As mandated by UNCITRAL at its forty-third session, the Working Group considered the Draft Technical Legislative Guide by the Secretariat on the Implementation of a Security Rights Registry and adopted the draft Registry Guide. The Working Group also started with the preparation of a short and concise Draft Model Law on Secured Transactions based on the general recommendations of the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions and consistent with all texts prepared by UNCITRAL.

At its twenty-third session, the Working Group, composed by prominent experts in this area provided valuable information and views and encouraged interactive debate on ways in which stakeholders and beneficiaries may collaborate on the harmonization of policies, best practices, procedures, enforcement, notice-registration mechanisms and legal instruments.

The participation of the DIL in these meetings built on increased awareness of the crucial role played by secured transactions reform in the promotion of equitable access to credit in Latin American and Caribbean countries and to address the need for building capacity in OAS Member States to adopt and implement international instruments on the topic. The DIL shared with the Working Group its views on pertinent matters and experience at the regional level so as to facilitate the deliberations at the session and to avoid duplication or inconsistency with complementary instruments sponsored by other Organizations. This coordination results in the promulgation of instruments that complement each other and, thus, can be considered and implemented by States either as part of a comprehensive systemic reform or separately.

In particular, meetings have proven to be excellent avenues for the OAS to identify Member States, local and international co-sponsors for reform, international organizations and international non-governmental organizations working on secured transactions reform interested in the project that the DIL has committed to implementing.

The topics covered and the identified suggestions and proposals made by experts and key actors will provide a broadly appropriate basis for designing the contents and methodology of the capacity-building seminars that DIL will hold shortly.

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