The Review of the Personal Property Securities Act has released the first of a series of consultation papers, in which it calls for an amendment that would stop short-term leases being captured by the Act.The review, headed by Ashurst partner Bruce Whittaker, said the definition of a PPS lease should be amended so that a lease of less than a year was not captured.The consultation paper looks at the reach of the PPSA, including the types of legal relationships and property to which the law should apply, and what exemptions might be appropriate.The consultation follows an interim report, released in August, which said the majority of submissions argued that the PPSA and the Personal Property Securities Register were too complex. Industry bodies said many businesses were unaware of the Act and its impact. "The clear message from the submissions is that if the Act is to achieve its potential, it needs to be clarified and simplified," the interim report said.The PPSA, which came into effect in January 2012, replaced state and territory laws with a national regime for the creation, registration and enforcement of security interests in personal property.The Act also created the PPSR, which consolidated more than 40 commonwealth, state and territory registers used to provide notification to third parties of interest in personal property.The consultation paper rejected calls to repeal the law. "It would be a retrograde step to repeal the law, as has been suggested in a number of submissions," it said.Under the PPSA, a security interest means an interest in personal property provided for by a transaction that secures payment or performance of an obligation. That interest might be provided by a fixed charge, a floating charge, a trust receipt, a chattel mortgage, a conditional sale agreement, a hire purchase agreement, a consignment or a lease. The consultation paper recommended that certain examples of security interests be amended or deleted. These included trust receipts (which are used in trade finance).On the subject of leases, the consultation paper said the PPSA should continue to apply to some types of longer-term leases.It said: "A good deal of leasing activity relates to operating leasing, where a company wants to acquire the use of an asset for a period of time but then return it to the lessor at the end of that period. A lessor might ask why its commercial arrangements should be caught up in legislation that deals with secured finance."