A document used by a secured party to perfect its security interest in collateral. We study financing statements elsewhere. For now, consider the filing of a financing statement as analagous to the recording of a mortgage, a concept with which you should be familiar from your first year course in Property.

     In this case, the defendants argue that the financing statement serves a different function from that which it normally serves; they argue that the financing statement satisfies the Statute of Frauds requirement that a mortgage be evidenced by a writing.