So called "UCC insurance" has become a checklist item for most major mezzanine investors and lenders, oftentimes driven by secondary market considerations. Blue chip law firms are familiar with the concept, and have become the primary source of business with their recommending UCC insurance to their lender clients.

And, the recent introduction of Fidelity National Title Group's new and improved UCCPlus policy, available through direct operations and select agents now provides investors, lenders and outside counsel the market's broadest coverages, narrowest exclusions and most flexible pricing.

UCCPlus is a lender title insurance product which insures the security interest in commercial loans secured by non-real estate assets for validity, insurability, attachment, perfection and priority. UCCPlus covers fraud, forgery, insures over documentation defects and filing office errors and omissions, insures the gap and provides cost of defense coverage in the event of a challenge to the lender's security interest.

Non-real estate assets are defined by Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, and often referred to as "personal property", or "Article 9 collateral". Personal property includes inventory, furniture, fixtures, equipment, accounts receivables, deposit accounts, and uncertificated securities (often crucial to the mezzanine loan transaction).

UCCPlus also provides coverage with respect to those certificated transactions in which the borrower "opts in to" Article 8. UCCPlus policies include UCC search and filing services.

The policy was originally developed to expand coverages available to lenders, while at the same time complementing the traditional legal opinion, successfully relieving liability to outside counsel in connection to priority and perfection. UCCPlus waives the right of subrogation in connection to lender's counsel and frequently reduce loan origination costs to the borrower, while enhancing the value of loans sold into the secondary market.

An extremely important advantage of UCCPlus over our competitor's is that our policy presumes the debtor's rights in collateral, thereby overcoming a substantial exclusion found in competing products.

Policies are underwritten and produced by the UCC Insurance Division for the Alamo Title, Chicago Title, Fidelity National Title, Security Union and Ticor Title brands of Fidelity National Title Group, Inc. Collectively, FNTG (and its close relative Fidelity National Financial) are #261 in the Fortune 500 List of America’s Top Corporations, and the nation's largest provider of real estate origination and closing services.

FNTG’s UCC Insurance Division has developed a particular expertise in underwriting and insuring large mixed-collateral loan transactions (hotels, shopping centers, power plants, casinos and office buildings), major-market asset based loans, commercial loan work-outs and high yield mezzanine financing transactions.

UCCPlus underwriting staff consists of lawyers and paralegals specializing in commercial finance transactions. Opened orders for UCCPlus exceed $25 Billion. Our clients include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Greenwich Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, GMAC, BofA, Wachovia, Key Capital, Citigroup, TIAA-CREFF, Countrywide, ARCS, MONY, Prudential, RAIT, Wells Fargo, Column Financial .

Many of the nation's leading law firms, specializing in real estate and commercial finance transactions, rely on UCCPlus to reduce risk and enhance loan value for the benefit of their clients. These law firms include Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft; Sidley Austin Brown; Windels Marx; Holland & Knight, Strook & Strook; Baker McKenzie, Weil Gotshal; Cravath Swaine; Thatcher Profitt; Pircher Nichols; Sullivan & Cromwell; Kaye Scholer; Jones Day; Morrison & Foerster; Dechert; Quarles Brady; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; DLA Piper Rudnick; Dewey Ballantine; Shearman & Sterling; Brown Raysman; Proskauer Rose; Skadden Arps; Bingham McCutchen; Sonnenschein; Goodwin Proctor; Buchanan Ingersoll; Jenkens & Gilchrist; Solomon Weinberg; Hogan & Hartson; Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; Schulte Roth; Lewis & Roca; Paul Hastings; Latham & Watkins; Katten Muchin; Kirkland & Ellis; Heller Ehrman; Debevoise & Plimpton and Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw.

Technical information, promotional materials, order forms and an electronic rate calculator are located at our www.uccplus.com web site. Key published articles concerning mezzanine financing can be found at the "News" link.

Ted Sprink is Senior Vice President and National Marketing Director of the Fidelity National Title Group's UCC Insurance Division. Ted is one of the original architects of the UCC insurance value proposition, managing the industry’s successful introduction of the concept in 2001. Ted can be reached at 619-744-4410 or tsprink@fnf.com.