Dr. Marek Dubovec, ILI’s Director of Law Reform Programs, spoke at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Colloquium, February 20-21, 2025, in New York. The Colloquium, “Navigating the new era of digital finance – The UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions on the use of new types of assets for secured financing,” explored proposals for future work of UNCITRAL in the area of secured transactions and digital assets.
During its’ 57th session in 2024, the Commission noted the “emergence of new types of assets that could be used as collateral in international finance (including digital assets, data, verified carbon credits and crop receipts) as well as the development of new international financing practices.” With regard to these, it was also noted that there had been “legislative efforts by international and regional organizations to address transactions involving such assets as well as the evolving legislative approaches of States.” The UNCITRAL Secretariat invited expert speakers to discuss these topics and identify areas of future work in asset-based financing.
While at the event, Marek moderated the panel entitled Registry operation: methods, best practices and technologies. The panel included presentations from Mary Gilmore-Maurer, Senior Legal Counsel, Legal Policy, and Markets Department Counsel, VERRA; Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Professor of Commercial Law, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; Matthew Saal, Digital Finance Specialist at the International Finance Corporation; and Diana Lucía Talero Castro, Independent Senior Consultant and INSOL Fellow. These presenters covered topics including security rights in digital assets, operations of registries for voluntary carbon credits, laws in Latin America governing the issuance and transfer of electronic invoices, and technological aspects of collateral registries.
Marek also presented and spoke on another panel about the legal framework governing rights to payment, examining the application of standards for secured transactions, factoring, MLETR (UNCITRAL’s Model Law on Economic Transferable Records, adopted in 2017), and digital assets to receivables generated in supply chain transactions.
Find the full agenda on UNCITRAL’s website.
