Security Interest - Perfection

Perfection

Perfection of security interests means different things to lawyers in different jurisdictions.

• in English law, perfection has no defined statutory or judicial meaning, but academics have pressed the view that it refers to the attachment of the security interest to the underlying asset. Others have argued cogently that attachment is a separate legal concept, and that perfection refers to any steps required to ensure that the security interest is enforceable against third parties.
• in American law, perfection is generally taken to refer to any steps required to ensure that the security interest remains enforceable on the debtor's bankruptcy.

With the Americanization of the world's legal profession, the second definition is becoming more frequently used commercially, and arguably is to be preferred, as the traditional English legal usage has little purpose except in relation to the comparatively rare true legal mortgage (very few other security interests require additional steps to attach to the asset, but security interests frequently require some form of registration to be enforceable on the chargor's insolvency).