Uniform Electronic Transactions Act

The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) is one of the several United States Uniform Acts proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). Forty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted the UETA. Its purpose is to harmonize state laws concerning retention of paper records (especially checks) and the validity of electronic signatures.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has worked for the uniformity of state laws since 1892. It is a non-profit unincorporated association, composed of state commissions on uniform laws from each state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A list of states that have accepted UETA can be found at The National Conference of State Legislatures and at the NCCUSL website. While three states have not adopted UETA, they do have laws recognizing electronic signatures (Illinois, New York, and Washington).

Before adoption of this Act, most states required banks to retain physical copies of all checks they process. Obviously, keeping these checks in electronic form only would vastly simplify storage and access concerns for banks. UETA aims to rectify this by streamlining and unifying these laws to allow for electronic retention. In much the same fashion, UETA addresses the need to retain paper copies of other records and contracts, effectively giving legally binding status to electronic documents and signatures.

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