Secured transactions in the United States are an important part of the law and economy of the country.
The availability of such remedies encourages lenders to lend capital at lower interest rates, which in turn facilitates the free flow of credit and stimulates economic growth.
UCC Article 9 replaced a wildly diverse array of security devices that had evolved in the various states during the 19th and early 20th centuries, in response to the reluctance of U.S. courts to enforce general nonpossessory security interests as either against public policy or because they were perceived as fraudulent conveyances.
[2] The drafters of UCC Article 9, particularly Grant Gilmore, successfully argued that since historical experience showed that disfavoring such security interests would not prevent creditors from requesting them or debtors from trying to give them by any means necessary, and because they were clearly economically useful, the better path was to develop a unified, simplified law of security interests.
This latter distinction is important in the context of the sale and purchase of promissory notes secured by real property.
Attachment requires three things: (i) that the debtor have rights in the collateral or the power to convey rights; (ii) that value be given; and (iii) in most cases, that the debtor have authenticated a security agreement that adequately describes the collateral.
§ 9-309, for most perfection must be achieved through compliance with statutory procedure designed to give the world notice that the collateral is encumbered.