The future of the Personal Property Securities Act remains unclear, with the Attorney-General's Department yet to respond to a review of the Act that was completed in March.In the meantime, the Registrar of the Personal Property Securities system, Gavin McCosker, said in a post on the PPS website last week that he would be taking action on a number of the review's recommendations covering operational activities.The review, which was conducted by Ashurst partner Bruce Whittaker, accepted the view put in a majority of submissions that the controversial legislation was not meeting its goal of providing "more certain, consistent, simpler and cheaper arrangements for personal property securities." Whittaker made 394 recommendations in the review. McCosker said that, in addition to the recommendations with a legislative basis, the review highlighted operational activities that could be strengthened. It said that more could be done to increase awareness of the system among small businesses.McCosker said his organisation was developing relationships with business advisers, such as accountants, financial advisers, lawyers and business associations as a way of channeling information to SMEs.The Registrar has also developed a comprehensive guide for businesses and their advisers, which was released on Friday.One significant change to the PPSA regime took effect on October 1, when businesses leasing out serial numbered goods, such as motor vehicles, aircraft, boats, excavators and loaders, for less than a year were no longer required to record these transactions on the Personal Property Securities Register. Under the old rule, leases of serial numbered goods for a term of 90 days or more were deemed to be security interests and therefore required registration on the PPSR.The inclusion of such a broad category of security interests was the most controversial aspect of the PPSA. Equipment hire businesses found the registration requirements extremely complex and costly.