UCC, equipment, and B2B data glossary.

A set of model laws adopted, with variations, by every U.S. state to standardise commercial transactions. Article 9 governs secured transactions and is the part that produces public filing records. When people say “UCC data” they almost always mean Article 9 financing statements.

A creditor’s legal claim on a borrower’s property as collateral for an obligation. If the borrower defaults, the secured party may take the collateral. Creating the interest is between the two parties; making it effective against everyone else requires perfection.

The step that makes a security interest effective against third parties such as other lenders and a bankruptcy trustee. For most business collateral, perfection happens by filing a UCC-1 financing statement with the appropriate state filing office. Perfection is what converts a private agreement into a public record, which is why this data exists at all.

The initial public filing that perfects a security interest. It names the debtor, the secured party, and the collateral. A UCC-1 is generally effective for five years from the filing date unless a continuation extends it. Because a filing marks the moment a business financed something, it is widely used as a buying and credit signal. See UCC filing data.

Any filing that changes an existing UCC-1. The same form covers several actions: continuation, termination, assignment, and amendments to debtor, secured party, or collateral details. Tracking UCC-3 activity is how a filing is followed across its lifecycle rather than read as a single snapshot.

The party that pledged the collateral — in commercial filings, the business that financed an asset. Debtor names and addresses are how filings are matched back to real company records, and why entity resolution matters: the same business often appears under several name and address variants across jurisdictions.

The creditor holding the security interest: a bank, lessor, equipment finance company, or other lender. Searching by secured party rather than debtor returns every business a given lender has financed, which is how teams map a competitor’s book of business or monitor a portfolio.

The property pledged to secure the obligation. On a filing it appears as a free-text description that may name specific equipment, vehicles, inventory, or receivables, or use broad all-asset language. That text is the primary evidence of what a business actually financed.

How broadly a filing claims the debtor’s property. A blanket filing covers substantially all assets; a specific-assets filing names particular equipment or categories. Scope signals the kind of financing involved — a working-capital facility looks different from an equipment lease.

A filing whose collateral description covers substantially all of a debtor’s assets rather than named items. Common in general business lending, and significant to later lenders because it affects where a new facility would sit in priority.

A UCC-3 filing that extends a UCC-1 beyond its five-year term for another five years. It must normally be filed within the six months before the original lapses. A continuation is a useful signal: it indicates a financing relationship that is still live and was worth preserving.

What happens when a UCC-1 reaches the end of its effective period without a continuation. The filing stops being effective and the security interest becomes unperfected. Distinguishing lapsed from active filings is essential; a lapsed record describes history, not a current claim.

A UCC-3 filing that releases the security interest before it would otherwise lapse, typically once the obligation is satisfied. Terminations often mark the end of a financing cycle, which can indicate a business is due to finance again.

A UCC-3 filing that transfers a security interest from one secured party to another, for example when paper is sold or a portfolio changes hands. Assignments explain why the lender of record may differ from the lender who originated the deal.

The state agency where financing statements are recorded, usually the Secretary of State. For a registered organisation the correct office is generally in the debtor’s state of formation rather than where it operates, which is why a national view requires aggregating across jurisdictions.

Whether a filing is currently active, lapsed, or terminated. Status is the first filter in most workflows because it separates live financing relationships from historical ones.

A security interest taken in goods to secure their purchase price — the classic equipment-finance structure. Under Article 9 a properly perfected PMSI can take priority over an earlier blanket lien covering the same category of collateral, subject to timing and notice requirements.

Records identifying which business owns a given machine or vehicle, and what else sits in that owner’s fleet. Distinct from filing data: a filing captures a financing event at a point in time, while ownership describes what a business operates now. See equipment ownership data.

The full set of equipment attributed to one owning business. Rolling records up by owner is what turns individual machines into fleet size and composition, which is the unit most equipment sellers, lenders, and service providers actually target.

The population of a given manufacturer’s or model’s equipment in operation across a market. Used to size a territory, measure share against competitors, and find fleets running machines a business supports or wants to replace.

The descriptive attributes of a business used to segment a market: industry classification, employee count, revenue range, location, and structure. The B2B equivalent of demographics, and the base layer of company data.

North American Industry Classification System code — the standard used by U.S. federal agencies to classify businesses by activity. Hierarchical, so a search can be broadened or narrowed by using fewer or more digits.

Standard Industrial Classification code, an older scheme still widely used in financial services and commercial data. Many datasets carry both SIC and NAICS, and they do not map one to one, so a segment defined in one may not translate exactly to the other.

The process of deciding that several records describe the same real business and merging them into one. It is the hardest part of joining public filings to company data, because the same company appears under legal names, trade names, abbreviations, and multiple addresses. Poor resolution shows up as duplicate accounts and fragmented fleets.

Adding missing attributes to records you already hold — appending firmographics to a lead, a verified email to a contact, or filing history to an account. See contact data.

Finding companies that resemble a defined set of existing customers across firmographics, industry, web signals, and operating context. Used to expand a target market from accounts that already convert rather than from a broad category filter.