A Comparative Study of Security Agreement of Funds Credited to a Bank Account in the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions and Iranian Law

A bank account is a credit container created under a contract between an authorized depositor and the account holder, giving the customer the ability to deposit and withdraw money. Under UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions 2016, there are clear provisions on the creating security right against funds credited to a bank account. According to this law, the account holder can enter into a security agreement without the intervention of the deposit-taking institution. In this case, the security right cannot be effective against the deposit-taking institution unless pursuant to an order of a court or the deposit-taking institution’s consent.  If the security agreement is registered in the Registry, it can be invoked against third parties. It is also possible to involve the bank in the creation of the security agreement with a tripartite agreement called a control agreement, which in the latter case, the security agreement can be invoked against third parties without the need for registration. In Iranian law, although it is possible to implicitly derive the certifying to create security right against funds credited to a bank account from Article 21 of the Law on Elimination Barriers to Competitive Production and Improvement of the Financial System of the Country, approved in 2015, which speaks of a special bank account, but the conflict of this article with the provisions of mortgage in the Civil Code and its non-compliance with the general rules of mortgage, this implicit implication will not be able to persuade the legal community to accept the security right against funds credited to a bank account. Therefore, in order to keep pace with developments related to collateral transactions in the international legal system, it is appropriate to fill this legal gap by applying the provisions of the UNCITRAL Model Law.