A Voluntary Filing System for Secured Financing Transactions in the European Union

In this article the authors urge the adoption of a personal property security regime that rests on a system of voluntary submission by debtors to a filing system. Under the system, debtors seeking to secure borrowing with their personal property announce their election of the harmonized system in order to facilitate cross border asset based financing. The authors argue that the diverse nature of property law in Europe makes it impossible to adopt a required regime of a personal property law fully integrated into the property regimes of Member States. They propose as an alternative, the voluntary system, which would be supported by European Union legislation, but that legislation would not supersede municipal law and would apply only if borrowers elect to make themselves subject to it.