Our Team

Benjamin Geva

Counsel

	Direct: 416.865.7987 Office: Toronto Fax: 416.865.7380 Email: bgeva@torys.com

	Benjamin is a member of Torys' Payments and Cards Practice.

Practice

Benjamin Geva is a leading international legal expert on payment instruments and methods, bank deposits and collections, credit transactions and facilities, electronic banking, and payment and settlement systems.

Benjamin has advised on and drafted key financial sector legislation, mostly in relation to payment and settlement systems, for the authorities of several countries, particularly, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Haiti, Serbia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste and Sri Lanka. Mainly in Canada but also in the United States and in the international arena, he has been on legislative committees and drafting working groups examining and proposing reform to payment and personal property security laws.

Professional Involvement

Benjamin has been a member of the faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School since 1977. He also practised at a major Canadian law firm and worked for the International Monetary Fund. Additionally, he has held these visiting positions: in the United States at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, the University of Utah and Northwestern University as well as in the summer program of Duke university in Hong Kong; in Israel at Tel Aviv University; in Australia at Monash, Deakin and Melbourne universities; in Singapore at the National University of Singapore; in Germany at the University of Hamburg; and in France at the faculté de droit et de science politique d'Aix-Marseille. Benjamin has been a visitor at the law faculties of Oxford and Cambridge universities in England and at Max-Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law in Hamburg, Germany, as well as a Senior Global Research Fellow at the Hauser Global Visitors Program of New York University School of Law.

He is a member of the Committee on International Monetary Law of the International Law Association (MOCOMILA); Canadian Overseas Editor for the Journal of Banking and Finance: Law and Practice, (Australia); Member of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law; and a member of the Academic Advisory Board and External Professional Fellow of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law of the University of Hong Kong Law Faculty. He was a member of the Regulatory Advisory Group to the Task Force for the Payments System Review, providing advice on regulatory and legal issues related to the payments industry in Canada in 2011.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Benjamin is the founding editor-in-chief of the Banking and Finance Law Review (BFLR);
and the author of a treatise, The Law of Electronic Funds Transfer, New York: Matthew Bender, 1992 (annually updated); a comparative law text, Bank Collections and Payment Transactions, Oxford: OUP, 2001; and a legal history monograph, The Payment Order of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Oxford and Portland Oregon: Hart, 2011

Benjamin has written numerous articles and book chapters on payment system issues, including the following:

"Global Payment and Settlement Systems"
in Electronic Encyclopedia for Financial Globalization, section eds. Randall Dodd and Douglas Arner, section 2 (to be released in 2012 by Elsevier) |

Is Canada Ready for the Paperless Cheque? An Analysis of the Historical and Practical Implications of Going Paperless
Torys LLP | May 4, 2012

"The Wireless Wire: Do M-Payments and UNCITRAL Model Law and International Credit Transfers Match?"
BFLR, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 249-264 | 2012

"Global and Cross-Border Credit Transfers: The Role of Legislation in Addressing Legal Risk for Participants"
in International Monetary and Financial Law in the Light of the Global Crisis, ed. M. Giovanoli and D. Devos, pp. 545-574, Oxford University Press | 2010

"The Harmonization of Payment Services Law in Europe and Uniform and Federal Funds Transfer Legislation in the USA: Which Is a Better Model for Reform?"
European Banking and Financial Law Journal), 2009, no. 4, pp. 699-733. [Earlier version was published in Armonizzazione Europea Dei Servizi di Pagamento e Attuazione della Direttiva, 2007/64/CE, 48 Il Diritto della Banca e della Borsa, Studi e Dibattiti, ed. M.R. Farina, V. Santoro, A.S. Alibrandi and O. Troiano, Milano: Giuffré Editore] | 2009

"Payment Transactions under the EU Payment Services Directive: A U.S. Comparative Perspective"
Penn State International Law Review, vol. 27, no. 3, 713-755 | 2009

"Payment System Modernization and Law Reform in Developing Nations: Lessons from Cambodia and Sri Lanka"
Banking Law Journal, vol. 126, pp. 402-439 | 2009

"TARGET2 Transfer of Funds and Harmonization of EU Payment Law"
Uniform Commercial Code Law Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 113-145, fall | 2008

"Payment Finality and Discharge in Funds Transfers"
Chicago-Kent Law Review, vol. 83, pp. 633-675 | 2008

"Reimagining E-Money: Its Conceptual Unity with Other Retail Payment Systems"
Current Developments in Monetary and Financial Law, vol. 3, pp. 669-705, co-authored with M. Kianieff | 2005

"The Beneficiary’s Bank and Beneficiary Described by Name and Number: Liability Chain and Liability Standard in Wire Transfers"
Part 1, TSAR (Journal of South African Law), vol. 1, 2004, pp. 1-19; Part 2, TSAR, vol. 2, 2004, pp. 235-257 | 2004

"Legal Aspects Relating to Payment by E-Money: Review of Retail Payment System Fundamentals"
inYearbook of International Financial and Economic Law, 2000-2001, pp. 207-281, ed. JJ. Norton and C. Hadjiemmanuil, London: BIICL | 2003

"Consumer Liability in Unauthorized Electronic Funds Transfers"
Canadian Business Law Journal, vol. 38, pp. 207-281 | 2003

"Promoting Stability in International Finance: Legislative and Regulatory Reform of Payment and Settlement Systems"
in The Reform of the International Financial Architecture, ed. R.M. Lastra, pp. 247-281 (vol. 18 of International Banking, Finance and Economic Law Series), London, Hague, Boston: Kluwer Law International | 2001

"International Funds Transfers: Mechanisms and Laws"
in Cross-Border Electronic Banking: Challenges and Opportunities, 2nd ed., chap. 1, pp. 1-34, ed. C. Reed, I. Walden and L. Edgar, London, Hong Kong: Lloyd's of London Press | 2000

"Unauthorized Electronic Funds Transfers: Comparative Aspects"
paper presented at the 1996 Bar Ilan University 8th Biennial Conference of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law, published in New Developments in International Commercial and Consumer Law, pp. 107-133, ed. J.S. Ziegel, Oxford: Hart | 1998

"Access to the Canadian Payment System"
co-authored with Shameela Chinoy, in The Regulation of Financial Institutions: Issues and Perspectives, papers presented at the Queen’s Annual Business Law Symposium 1996, pp. 411-453, Toronto: Carswell | 1997

Selected Media highlights

December 2, 2011: Benjamin Geva joins Torys' Toronto office

Practice Areas and Industry Groups

Financial Institutions Payments and Cards

Bar Admissions

Ontario

Education

SJD
Harvard University

LLM
Harvard University

LLB (With Distinction)
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Conferences and Events

June 19, 2012–June 20, 2012

Cardware 2012: Payment Insights, Niagara Falls, ON