Governments were latecomers to the facilitation of trade financed by factors. English common law originally held that unless the debtor was notified, the assignment between the seller of invoices and the factor was not valid. The Canadian Federal Government legislation governing the assignment of moneys owed by it still reflects this stance as does provincial government legislation modelled after it. As late as the current century, the courts have heard arguments that without notification of the debtor the assignment was not valid. In the United States, by 1949 the majority of state governments had adopted a rule that the debtor did not have to be notified, thus opening up the possibility of non-notification factoring arrangements.