Security interests taken in the accounts held by intermediaries are perfected automatically at attachment, and no further steps are necessary to perfect. Perfection is a common term of Article 9. It is the event that determines a creditor's priority with respect to other creditors of a debtor in the property to which the security interest attaches. Having a security interest means that a creditor can take the subject property to satisfy the debt if the debtor defaults on payment, if that creditor has a security interest that has priority over any competing security interests. A creditor with priority over another gets to have his or her debt satisfied from the collateral before the other creditor.
Secured creditors have priority in the property that is collateral over unsecured creditors.
Between secured creditors, generally, priority is a matter of first in time to obtain perfection. There are some special rules in the amendments to Article 9, however. Any creditor who perfects by taking control over the investment property has priority over a creditor perfecting a security interest by filing. Security interests in favor of brokers or intermediaries that are not perfected by control have equal priority. Otherwise, the usual rules for priority pertain.