What is a financing statement and what information does it have to contain under the PPSA?

A financing statement is the document filed in Ontario's PPSA registry to register a security interest — it's a notice-style filing, not the security agreement itself. It generally needs to correctly identify the debtor, most importantly by the debtor's precise legal name, since the registry indexes and searches are based on that name and an inaccurate name can make the registration seriously misleading and therefore ineffective.

It also needs to identify the secured party (the lender or other party holding the security interest) and include a description of the collateral covered, which can be as broad as "all present and after-acquired personal property" or more specific, describing particular assets or categories of assets, depending on what the security agreement actually covers. The financing statement does not need to attach or disclose the underlying loan amount, interest rate, or other commercial terms of the deal — those stay private between the parties. Because the registration is only as good as the accuracy of what's filed, getting the debtor's exact legal name and an appropriate collateral description right is essential, and errors are a common, avoidable cause of registrations later being challenged.