Wednesday, Jan 26 2022 05:00 PM

VIA ZOOM | A link will be sent to all ACFA members in good standing

As many members of ACFA know, since 2019 a committee appointed by the American Law Institute and the Uniform Law Commission, the sponsoring organizations of the Uniform Commercial Code, has been studying and formulating amendments to the UCC to address emerging technological developments including those relating to digital assets and virtual currencies. This program will explore provisions of the initial draft of the amendments as presented to the Uniform Law Commission at the Commission’s annual meeting in July of 2021 and explain policy choices tentatively made so far.

A large number of the proposed amendments concern a class of digital assets – defined as “controllable electronic records” (a “CER”) – which would include certain virtual currencies, non-fungible tokens, and digital assets in which specified payment rights are embedded. The proposed amendments provide for a CER to be in effect negotiable, i.e., capable in many circumstances of being transferred in such a way as to cut off competing property claims to the CER. The proposed amendments also provide for a security interest in a CER to be perfected by the filing of a financing statement or by “control” and for a security interest in a CER perfected by “control” to have priority over a security interest in the CER perfected by the filing of a financing statement (or another method other than “control”). In addition, the proposed amendments contain some provisions relating to chattel paper, negotiable instruments, and payment systems, and some miscellaneous amendments to the UCC.

The current plan is for the amendments to be finalized over the next year with a view to obtaining approval of the American Law Institute in May of 2022 and of the Uniform Law Commission in July of 2022 and the amendments then being offered for enactment by the states.

DISTINGUISHED PRESENTERS

• Charles W. Mooney, Jr., University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Juliet M. Moringiello, Widener University-Widener Law Commonwealth
• Edwin E. Smith, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP
• Steven O. Weise, Proskauer Rose LLP

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