Professor Akindemowo Presents at ABA Meeting in San Francisco

August 18, 2010

Professor Eniola Akindemowo gave two presentations at the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco on August 7 and 8.

She was invited by the U.C.C. Committee of the Business Law Section to contribute to a panel on the General Provision sections of the U.C.C. My presentation was entitled The U.C.C. §1-302 Concept of Variability By Agreement: Just How Variable Are Articles 3 & 4. In this presentation she rationalized the U.C.C. §1-302(a) principle, and contrasted the scope for variation existing in U.C.C. Articles 3 and 4.

The panel was hosted by the co chair of the U.C.C. committee, Professor Scott J. Burnham, Curley Professor of Commercial Law at the Gonzaga University School of Law. Professor Akindemowo’s co panelists were Prof Curtis Bridgeman, James Edmund & Margaret Elizabeth Hennessey Corry Professor at Florida State University, and Janet M Nadile, Senior Attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York.

Professor Akindemowo’s second presentation was entitled It Has Been Quite A Journey But Where Are We Now? Assessing the Regulatory Policy of Stored Value Products. Professor Akindemowo was invited jointly by the Deposit Products and the Internet Delivery & Electronic Banking Sub-Committees of the Consumer Financial Services Committee to present that paper on a panel dealing with Recent Developments in Prepaid Cards . In this presentation she traced what has been the halting development of store value products (SVPs) policy in the U.S. thus far, why the development of regulatory policy in the area has been hesitant, and what the ramifications of the causes of that hesitancy are for the future of payments regulation. While welcoming the role of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau established under the new Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, she highlighted emerging inconsistencies that will detrimentally affect the efficiency and competitiveness of the payments regulatory system if they are not expeditiously addressed.

The moderator of the panel was Veronica K McGregor, attorney at Perkins Coie LLP in San Francisco. Professor Akindemowo’s co-panelists were Judith Rinearson partner, of Bryan Cave, New York, and Ky Tran-Trong, counsel of the Community and Consumer Affairs Division of the Federal Reserve Board, Washington DC.