May 6, 2010

We have very exciting news for Montana customers! The Montana Secretary of State's office has now made the electronic UCC filings available. Moving forward you will receive both the hard copy (25% - 35%) and the electronic (65% - 75%) filings from the state of Montana.

Montana - beginning in 2001 we had only been receiving hard copy filings.  Electronic filings were introduced as part of Article 9 of the UCC in 2001. Since that time, Montana has never made these electronic filings available to EDA.  On the other hand, EDA has received and continues to receive hard copy UCC filings from the Montana Secretary of State's office. As of 2010, the industry estimate of UCC filings filed electronically is between 65% - 75%.  Relative to the overall US market, Montana’s percentage of total UCC activity for the US is:  2001 (1.3%), 2002 (1.1%), 2003 (1.1%), 2004 (1.0%), 2005 (0.8%), 2006 (0.6%), 2007 (0.6%), 2008 (0.6%), 2009 (0.6%).   

Our production staff is aggressively working through the all the Montana electronic filings, dating back to 2001, and we expect to have all the data updated and loaded in Catapult by the end of June. As we process this backlog of electronic Montana filings, you may notice an increased number of filings displayed in your New Records that were actually filed in previous years.

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For our national customers, the remaining challenging states are Nevada and South Dakota.

Nevada – EDA has received zero UCC filings since December 2006! In an effort to protect the privacy of debtors, the Secretary of State of Nevada has been working on an automated process to redact (remove) the SSN and Federal Tax ID from UCC filings.  In the interim, Nevada has halted data delivery until a funding source and a vendor have been procured to execute the redaction process.   

South Dakota – EDA only receives electronic filings.  Over the past six years, the South Dakota Secretary of State's office has been unable to deliver traditionally filed UCCs (i.e. paper vs. electronic), which represent roughly a third of all UCCs filed with the state. Two reasons for this decision involve the small number of filings with SSNs displayed and technical difficulties converting paper UCCs to electronic images. SD has recently reasserted their policy concerning traditionally filed UCC's; however, EDA will continue its efforts in hopes of resolving this issue.

Sincerely,

EDA's Customer Experience Team