AS THE ABOVE MAP DEPICTS, commercial finance disclosure legislation has quickly spread across the country. California, New York, and most recently Utah are the only bills to pass at this time and all are still in the regulatory process. These passed bills are joined by introductions in Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Mississippi and Missouri. No bill is currently moving faster than the Maryland legislation.

Maryland Senate Bill 825 disclosure legislation was amended in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, March 15, and passed the State Senate on Wednesday, March 16. The bill as amended by the committee and on the Senate floor preserves ELFA’s hard-fought-for exemption protections for “a lease as defined in article 2a of the uniform commercial code” and, for the first time in a “blue state,” extended exemption protection to bank subsidiaries and affiliates as defined. 

With only a 90-day session, the Maryland legislative process can move at warp speed. ELFA has communicated multiple times with the sponsor and committee Chairman and Vice Chairman in an effort to further extend exemption protection to UCC 9 purchase money transactions and captive transactions.