Collateral arrangement relying on set-off held to create a
security interest and therefore subject to federal government's
priorities for unremitted income tax and employment insurance
at-source deductions
Caisse populaire Desjardins de l'Est de Drummond v.
Canada, 2009 SCC 29
On June 19, 2009 the Supreme Court of Canada released its
decision in Caisse populaire Desjardins de l'Est de
Drummond v. Canada. The issue was whether an agreement between
a lender and borrower with respect to set-off against a term
deposit gave rise to a "security interest" within the
meaning of s. 224(1.3) of the federal Income Tax Act
(ITA). The majority of the court held that it did. Consequently,
the lender's right to set-off its term deposit obligation
against the borrower's loan obligation was subject to the
statutory priority of the federal government with respect to
employment insurance (EI) remit¬tances and income tax at-source
deductions under s. 227(4.1) of the ITA and s. 86(2.1) of the
Employment Insurance Act (EIA).
The majority's reasoning is problematic for commercial set-off
arrangements, even those that are deliberately drafted to avoid
characterization as security agreements, because it suggests that
if a set-off opportunity is created for the purpose of providing
"security" for a loan or other obligation it gives rise
to a security interest in the asset that is subject to the set-off.
Many common title transfer collateral arrangements are arguably
designed to do just that (such as the cash collateral arrangements
under the ISDA Credit Support Annex New York form if using the
Canadian recommended amendments, the ISDA Transfer Annex and other
industry agreements such as the Global Master Securities Lending
Agreement and the Global Master Repurchase Agree¬ment). So too
are margin requirements under many forms of securities loan master
agreements and securities repurchase agreements.
Background
Concurrently with its extension of a business line of credit to
a company called Camvrac, Caisse populaire Desjardins de l'Est
de Drummond (Caisse Drummond) and Camvrac entered into a "term
savings agreement" (TSA) requiring Camvrac to deposit
$200,000. The deposit matured in five years, was not transferrable
and could not be hypothecated or given as security in favour of any
person other than Caisse Drummond. They also entered into an
inadvisably named "Security Given Through Savings"
agreement under which it was agreed that Camvrac would maintain the
deposit "to secure the repayment of" the line of credit,
among other things. Camvrac also consented to Caisse Drummond
withholding the amount of the deposit until the sums due were
repaid or the line of credit was in place. In cases of default,
Caisse Drummond also had a right to "compensation" (the
Quebec equivalent of set-off) between the loan and the amounts
deposited. Caisse Drummond kept the certificates of deposit in its
possession. In addition as further security, Camvrac hypothecated
and pledged to Caisse Drummond the certificates and sums deposited
to secure the loan.
The loan went into default in November 2000 but Caisse Drummond did
not take any steps as a result until February 21, 2001, two weeks
after Camvrac had made an assignment in bankruptcy. Caisse Drummond
made a note on its copy of the TSA on February 21: "To be
closed on 21/2/2001 to realize on security" (another
unfortunate choice of language). In June, the Crown gave notice to
Caisse Drummond to pay all of the remittance arrears owing by
Camvrac to the Crown.
Definition of "Security Interest"The ITA and EIA create deemed trusts in favour of the Crown over property of the employer that has deducted income tax and EI premiums at source. The deemed trust also applies to property of the employer held by any secured creditor of the employer that, but for its security interest, would be property of the employer. "Security interest" is defined as: any interest in
property that secures payment or performance of an
obligation and includes an interest created by or arising out of a
debenture, mortgage, hypothec, lien, pledge, charge, deemed or
actual trust, assignment or encumbrance of any kind whatever,
however, or whenever arising, created, deemed to arise or otherwise
provided for.
The point of dispute between the majority and minority judgments turned on whether the arrangements created an interest in property of the employer Camvrac. |
The majority's reasonsIn a judgment authored by Rothstein J.,
the majority of the court found that the arrangements between
Caisse Drummond and Camvrac created a security interest in the
deposit or sums on deposit and that the set-off was the means of
realizing on this security interest. Consequently, the Crown claims
that arose with respect to remittance arrears prior to the date of
the set-off had the benefit of the deemed trust.
The argument against set-off being a security interest is that the
party seeking to set-off does not by virtue of a set-off right
itself have a proprietary claim in property belonging to the other
party. The party setting off itself has an obligation (in this case
the term deposit obligation) and is entitled to satisfy that
obligation by setting off an obligation owed to it by the other
party (in this case the loan obligation). Set-off does not have
anything to do with realizing on a property interest in one's
own obligation. Even if there is a security interest in one's
own obligation (as there was in this case), the set-off right can
exist quite independently of that (and in a properly drafted
agreement that would be clear).
However, the majority held that the arrangements were such that
Caisse Drummond did have a property interest in the term deposit.
It adopted a functional analysis. The deposit was put in place to
"secure" the loan, there was a security interest in the
deposit and the right of set-off was essentially a
"remedy" to enforce the security interest in the term
deposit. The truly novel aspect of the majority's reasoning is
the conclusion that the contractual "encumbrances" placed
on the deposit were what created the lender's property interest
in Camvrac's deposit, primarily because those encumbrances
ensured that the Caisse would be continuously liable to Camvrac.
Rothstein J. noted that, had Camvrac been in a position to shift
its funds in and out of the term account, there would have been no
security interest.
Why This Was A Security InterestThe crux of the court's reasoning is captured in the following passage: It was the five-year term and the
maintenance and retention of the $200,000 deposit, as well as
Camvrac's agreement not to transfer or negotiate the deposit
and that the deposit could only be used as security with the
Caisse, that created the Caisse's interest in Camvrac's
property for the purposes of s. 224(1.3) ITA. In the absence of
these encumbrances on Camvrac's deposit, Camvrac could have
withdrawn the deposit at any time. Should it have done so and still
been indebted to the Caisse, the Caisse's right to compensation
would be ineffective because it would not be indebted to Camvrac at
the time the Caisse had to resort to the remedy of compensation.
However, in this case the terms of the agreements provided that
Camvrac agreed to the encumbrances on its deposit of $200,000 so
that the Caisse would continuously be indebted to Camvrac and that
on default there would be effective compensation. It is the fact
that the agreements secured the Caisse's right to effective
compensation by conferring on the Caisse an interest in
Camvrac's property that created a "security interest"
for the purposes of s. 224(1.3) ITA.
|
The majority stressed that they were not saying that a contractual
set-off right is per se a species of security interest.
Rather, they held that, in light of the way the term deposit was
put in place and maintained to be available for set-off as long as
the credit line continued, the terms of this particular agreement
justified the recharacterization of the transaction as a whole as
the grant of a security interest.
The dissent
In dissenting reasons, Deschamps J. strongly disagreed with the
majority view. Taking a position reflecting that of many in the
financial industry and invoking a rather impressive range of
academic commentary, she concluded that security interests can only
be derived from "real rights" in property and never from
the attenuated type of contractual rights to which the majority
referred. Not all interests in property are security interests: in
this case, she noted, the Caisse had no right to realize on its
interest to secure performance of its obligation. The potential to
appropriate the underlying property, she maintained, is one of the
distinguishing features of a security interest.
Analysis
A central problem with the majority's analysis is that it
fails to differentiate between a credit support agreement and a
security interest. While all security interests provide credit
support, the converse is not true: not all credit support
arrangements are security interests. For example, guarantees and
letters of credit are clearly credit support, but they do not grant
an interest in property to secure payment or performance of an
obligation. The intention to provide credit support is quite
distinct from the intention to confer a security interest. Such
distinctions may have been lost on the majority partly because of
the drafting of the agreement, which unwisely used "security
language". The majority judgment did agree that a property
interest must be created in the debtor's property, but its
conclusion that there was such a property interest and that the
right of set-off was the means to enforce that interest is dubious.
One can only hope that this decision will be restricted in any
subsequent application to situations where the intention to create
a security interest is present on the face of the document and
where the set-off rights are not part and parcel of the asset
itself (i.e. the terms of the deposit itself do not provide for the
set-off).
While there is much to criticize in the judgment, this decision is
now a part of Canadian law and may require adjustments to
practices. In particular, it is important to note that while the
case dealt with the deemed trust provisions of the ITA and EIA, its
implications could extend further into the realm of personal
property security law. Moreover, it affects not only cash
collateral but title transfer arrangements with respect to
securities, including industry form agreements such as the GMSLA,
the GMRA and the ISDA Transfer Annex. The decision clearly
increases recharacterization risk in all of these situations.
Implications for Title Transfer Collateral Arrangements
The Canadian recommended language for cash for the ISDA CSA
creates a debtor-creditor relationship with respect to cash and
provides for a right of set-off against the cash. Cash is treated
as Other Eligible Support and is not subject to the security
interest language. On the other hand, there is clearly an
obligation to transfer the cash to the collateral taker, there is
no right to require repayment except to the extent credit is freed
up by changing in exposures, and the purpose of the transfer of the
cash is to "secure" the potential obligations under the
transactions. The same general analysis applies to credit support
transferred pursuant to the Transfer Annex or margin posted for
many securities lending and repurchase agreements. While there are
certainly features that distinguish these arrangements from the one
considered in the Caisse Drummond case, there are also
these important similarities.
FEDERAL CROWN CLAIMS
Crown claims that benefit from the statutory deemed trusts
(particularly those federal ones that prevail in a bankruptcy) may
take priority with respect to the cash. (That would also be the
case with respect to any collateral which is clearly subject to a
security interest). It is also now a more likely result with
respect to the Transfer Annex as it applies to securities or cash.
Provincial securities transfer laws that provide protection against
adverse claims for transfers of securities do not necessarily apply
where the adverse claim is a federal deemed trust. On the other
hand, there is a strong argument that the Crown would be subject to
the right of set-off in the case of an agreement such as the
Transfer Annex because the "property" is by its defining
terms flawed by the set-off right (as opposed to the term deposit
in the Caisse Drummond case, where the set-off was
provided for in a separate agreement and the parties treated the
term deposit as an autonomous property).
The decision also makes it clear that a non-defaulting party should
not sit on its right to effect the set-off. In this case the lender
waited several months from the date of default to note in its
records that it was effecting the set-off. It became subject to the
remittances in arrears that accrued during that period. Effecting
the set-off cut off the Crown's claim from the date of the
set-off.
PPSA
The case deals with the definition of "security
interest" in the ITA, and the majority decision made a point
of saying that it was not considering the definition under
provincial Personal Property Security Acts (PPSA). However, the ITA
definition is really not materially different from the PPSA
definition. Parties who have cash collateral set-off arrangements
should discuss with counsel whether a cautionary filing under the
provincial personal property security regime would also be
advisable with respect to cash collateral. A security interest in
an account (unless the cash is held in a securities account) can
only be perfected by the filing of a financing statement.
Normally priority with respect to security interests perfected by
filing would be determined by order of registration. However, given
the contractual right to set-off, the recognition of the
paramountcy of defences in section 40 of the Ontario PPSA (and its
equivalent in other common law provinces) should ensure priority
over other consensual security interests including those of prior
registrants. Section 40(1.1) of the Ontario PPSA provides that an
account debtor (e.g. the collateral taker) may set up by way of
defence against the assignee (e.g. a competing secured party) all
defences available to the account debtor against the assignor
arising out of the terms of the contract or a related contract
(unless it has contractually waived defences). The
"account" in this case is the amount owing by the
collateral taker with respect to the cash collateral it has
received from the assignor and the defence is the right under the
agreement to set-off against the net termination amount. Perfection
should not be relevant to priority as against other consensual
security interests or other assignees. It is somewhat unclear,
however, how section 40 would relate to the rights of a trustee in
bankruptcy as representative of the unsecured creditors or other
non-consensual lien claimants, so it would be advisable to file a
financing statement in any event to preclude any argument that
there is an unperfected security interest.
Thankfully, perfection is not an issue with respect to the title
transfer of securities (or cash in a securities account) because,
regardless of characterization and to the extent the laws of an
STA, U.C.C. Revised Article 8 or similar jurisdiction apply, the
collateral taker should be perfected by control.
Does the decision affect netting?
The case should not affect netting of transaction losses/gains
or values. There is no obligation in the normal course to maintain
offsetting transactions for the purpose of protecting the other
party against particular transaction defaults.
Contractual language
While perhaps not the decisive factor in the Supreme Court's
reasons, the security interest language of the agreements between
Caisse Drummond and Camvrac definitely did not help. Furthermore,
after Camvrac's default, an official of the Caisse wrote
"closed.to realize on security" on the TSA. To a court
applying modern "functional analysis" to the question of
whether an agreement create a security interest, the attitude
suggested by the use of this type of language was obviously
significant.
It would therefore be advisable to take special care to avoid
"security interest language" in relevant documentation
and even to specifically disclaim the intention to create a
security interest. The Transfer Annex and the cash collateral
language were carefully drafted in this respect. However, if you
are putting together a bespoke arrange¬ment it is very
important to be rigorous in maintaining the distinction between
set-off and security interests.
Contractual set-off works in Quebec
A positive result of the ruling is to make clear that contractual compensation (set-off) is effective under Quebec law. Whether Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act provisions permitting set-off in a bankruptcy included contractual compensation in Quebec had been unclear as the result of some previous Supreme Court jurisprudence.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.