What happens to a lender's registered security interest if the corporation goes bankrupt?

A properly perfected secured creditor generally continues to have a claim against its specific collateral even after the corporation goes bankrupt, and that claim generally ranks ahead of the corporation's unsecured creditors with respect to that collateral's value. In practical terms, the secured lender doesn't simply become part of the general pool of creditors the way an unsecured supplier or trade creditor typically does.

This is precisely why perfection matters so much: an unperfected security interest is generally treated as unenforceable against a trustee in bankruptcy, meaning a lender that failed to register can be reduced to an unsecured claim despite having a valid security agreement with the debtor. Federal insolvency law can still affect a secured creditor's practical recovery in some specific respects — for example, certain limited categories of claims can carry their own statutory priority in an insolvency that interacts with a secured creditor's position — so a perfected security interest, while generally strong, isn't necessarily an absolute guarantee of full recovery in every bankruptcy. Lenders facing a borrower's insolvency should get advice promptly to understand exactly how their specific security interest is likely to be treated.