How “Exact” is Your Bank Act search?

Bank Act (s. 427) security searches will uncover if a bank has taken a security interest in a borrower’s equipment or inventory, especially important when dealing with companies in agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining, manufacturing, and retail trade in physical goods.

Though similar to PPSA searches, Bank Act registry searches are easy to misinterpret if you assume they work the same. Understanding how these searches operate is important to ensure that results are complete and reliable.

Through the Bank Act Security Registry (the “BASR”), a business debtor search gives you only two options: Exact Match and Starts With. Notably, the first option displayed on the BASR is Exact Match.

The BASR matching logic is strict. Punctuation, spaces, numbers, and accents matter. An Exact Match search returns a result only if the name entered matches the BASR record character for character. A Starts With search is broader, but it still requires an exact character match at the beginning of the name field.

Exact Match Bank Act searches

If the company name on the record is RENÉE’S TECH. SOLUTIONS INC., then an Exact Match search for RENÉE’S TECH. SOLUTIONS INC. returns the record. But RENÉES TECH SOLUTIONS INC would not be included because of the apostrophe in “RENÉE’S”, and the periods after “TECH.” and “INC.”

It is also important to note that a registration without an accent in the name RENÉE’S would not be returned. Even small differences in formatting will prevent a result from appearing in Bank Act registry searches.

Starts With Bank Act searches

A search for RENÉE’S would return RENÉE’S TECH. SOLUTIONS INC., RENÉE FARMS, and RENÉE’S TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INC. A search for RENÉE’S TECH narrows to the records beginning with that exact string. A search for REN is broader again and would return RENÉE’S TECH. SOLUTIONS INC., RENÉE FARMS, RENÉE’S TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INC., and RENO NOVA LIMITED. But RENE would return no results because the BASR still requires the exact starting characters, and “RENE” does not match the accented “RENÉE” at the start of the registered name.

This is why Starts With is almost always the better option for business Bank Act searches. It’s broader than Exact Match, but it’s still only an exact-prefix search. It does not strip legal endings. It does not remove punctuation. It does not ignore accents. It does not apply built-in “similar name” logic like most PPSA searches. If you search ABC with Starts With, you will pick up ABC INC., ABC LTD., and ABC CORP. because they all begin with ABC.

Both business Bank Act search options are much narrower than PPSA business name searching. The Ontario PPSR system has built-in “similar name” rules - it strips corporate endings, removes punctuation and spaces, and treats certain variations as equivalent. The BASR does not currently have these helpful rules to return “similar’ results.

What is the Practical Approach to Bank Act Registry Searches?

For Bank Act searches on businesses, Regy always recommends a Starts With search. In practice, this means searching the business name without the legal ending, for example, searching ABC instead of ABC INC. This search would return results for ABC INC., ABC INCORPORATED, ABC LTD., ABC LIMITED, etc.

It is also important to keep in mind that one of the most common corporate name spelling mistakes is with the legal ending (i.e., “Limited” instead of “Ltd.”). To help address this, Regy offers an option to automatically strip legal endings and deduplicate equivalent names for Bank Act searches, helping ensure more complete results and avoiding duplicate orders.

It is worth checking some of your most recent Bank Act registry searches, whether run internally or received from opposing counsel, to see whether they were run as Exact Match or Starts With. Based on familiarity with PPSA searches, some legal professionals may assume a Bank Act search is broader than it actually is. This assumption can lead to incomplete results and increased risk in the due diligence process.

Key Takeaways

• Bank Act registry searches rely on strict matching logic where punctuation, spacing, and accents all affect results

• Exact Match searches may miss results due to small character differences

• Starts With searches are broader but still limited to exact-prefix matching

• Bank Act searches do not apply similar name logic like PPSA searches

• Careful input and review are essential to ensure complete and accurate Bank Act searches