On February 14, 2013, Governor Matt Mead signed House Bill 3 into law, which will extend the effectiveness period of UCC financing statements from the current 5-year duration to 10 years. The change will be effective on July 1, 2013, which coincides with the date the 2010 Amendments to Revised Article 9 will also become effective in that state.
The new law states that financing statements filed after July 1, 2013 will be effective for 10 years, not 5 years as current law provides. The filing of a UCC-3 continuation statement after July 1, 2013 will extend the effectiveness of the financing statement for an additional 10-year period. There is no change to the effectiveness period of currently active financing statements filed before July 1, 2013 if a continuation is not filed after the new law takes effect.
The bill was authored by the Joint Committee on Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions, which considered the issue in 2012. In testimony before the Committee, Jeri Melsness of the Secretary of State’s Office noted that the Wyoming Bankers Association approached her office to see if they would be open to extending the 5-year timeframe. They explained that because the costs of equipment covered by these UCC financing statements has gone up, the result has been longer duration periods for loans secured by such equipment.
With this change, as of July 1st, Wyoming will be the only state with a non-uniform effectiveness period of 10 years. Other states that previously had non-uniform effectiveness periods (Maryland and Arizona, for example) restored the 5-year rule with the adoption of the 1998 amendments to old Article 9.
