We are currently reviewing our policy regarding whether to restrict the forms that will be acceptable for filing financing statements and amendments under Colorado's Uniform Commercial Code, effective financing statements under Colorado's Central Filing of Effective Financing Statement Act, and miscellaneous liens under other applicable law.

The reason for this review is that the Colorado Department of State has recently expanded efforts to protect the privacy of individuals, especially regarding social security numbers. In this connection, on March 29, 2007, the Department of State restricted public online access to images of UCC and similar records filed on or before March 27, 2007 because some of the images contained SSNs of the individuals named in the records. And, on March 27, the Department began manually redacting SSNs as necessary on newly filed UCC records. Consequently, images of records filed on and after March 28 have been made Web accessible.

Our goal is to restore online access to all images while still protecting individual privacy. This will require efforts (a) to redact SSNs from existing images, and (b) to stop filing of new records that contain SSNs. The latter effort may require that we restrict acceptable forms to those that do not provide for inclusion of an SSN.

Effective July 1, 2001, Colorado’s UCC eliminated the requirement to include a SSN in a financing statement. At that time, we revised our forms to make clear that an individual debtor’s SSN was not required and attempted to discourage inclusion of SSNs in filings. In spite of these efforts, some filers are continuing to submit documents, often on out-of-date forms, that contain SSNs. Out-of-date forms (a) often require the inclusion of an SSN; and (b) may not comply with Revised Article 9 which became effective on July 1, 2001.

The Department of State strongly recommends that filers (a) use the most current forms provided by the Department to minimize any potential filing problems; and (b) not include an individual debtor’s SSN on the filing.

The current forms are available on the Business Center home page by selecting the “UCC and EFS forms” link under the UCC Information heading.

Most UCC and EFS filings can be submitted online at a reduced fee. Filing online also avoids the possibility of having a document rejected, resulting in the retention of the processing fee. To file online, select the “E-file a UCC or EFS Record” link under the UCC Information heading.

Revised April 19, 2007 at 12:10 PM