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8. BEA, supra note 4, s 55.
9. 360788 BC Ltd Operating as Money Mart v 304983
BC Ltd Operating as Niners Diners, 1998 CanLII
4281 (BCSC).
10. Atlantic Potash Corporation v HSBC Bank Canada,
2013 ONSC 5014 Atlantic Potash.
11. The process for depositing an image of the cheque is
called “Remote Deposit Capture” and derives from
legislative amendments to the BEA, s 163.1, that created
the legal concepts of “Official Images” and
“Electronic Presentment”, coupled with amendments
to Payments Canada, ACSS Clearing Rules, A10.
Under the Rules, the bank appoints the customer as
the bank’s agent to make an “official image”. This
has interesting implications that are as of yet unexplored
by any Canadian jurisprudence.
12. For a discussion of these issues in detail, see Benjamin
Geva, “Is the Death of the Paper Cheque Upon
Us?” (2015) 30:1 BFLR 113.
13. As a holder or holder in due course.
14. This suggests one solution might be to require a customer
creating an official image to endorse the item
“deposited by image capture” before making the
image.
15. Note, however, that a bill of exchange must be
“issued”: see BEA, s 2, sub verbo “issue”. If it has
been stolen, it has not been issued and is not valid:
National Bank of Canada v Tardivel Associates
(1994), 109 DLR (4th) 126 (Ont Div Ct) (where a
cheque was stolen by the payee).
16. A QR Code is a two-dimensional matrix bar code.
17. As would a crossed cheque: see “Lost and Stolen
Cheques”, supra note 1.
18. Online: <www.payments.ca/about-us/our-systemsand
rules/retail-system/statistics>.
19. Transactions in excess of $25,000,000 are now
required by banks to be carried out electronically.
20. Du v Jameson Bank, 2017 ONSC 2422 Jameson
Bank and St Lawrence Testing & Inspection Co Ltd v
Lanark Leeds Distribution Ltd, 2019 CanLII 69697
(Ont SCSM) Lanark.
21. Jameson Bank, supra note 20.
22. Lanark, supra note 20.
23. SWIFT is used for most international (and domestic)
wire transfers directly between banks having a
SWIFT Code and, while highly secure, can take more
than a day to settle, and once settled the wire transfers
are generally not reversible. Domestic AFT and
EFT payments are cleared pursuant to Payments
Canada’s ACSS Clearing Rules and, though settled
on a daily basis, are subject to Rules that permit limited
exception reversals. In contrast, credit cards
operate on a distinct credit card payment rail and
are subject to the branded international card rules of
the card used.
24. Under the Access to Funds Regulations, SOR/2012-
24, federally incorporated banks are required to
allow access to the first $100 of funds deposited
without a hold on funds.
25. BMP Global Distribution Inc v Bank of Nova Scotia,
2009 SCC 15; Royal Bank of Canada v BMP Global
Distribution Inc, 2011 BCSC 1650.
26. It is not clear when this policy was actually adopted
by the bank, but it was brought to the notice of a
solicitor closing a transaction only when a draft (from
a client) was brought in for deposit and the solicitor
was advised that it could not be paid out for four
days. The draft was returned and the funds transferred
electronically, but there was still a one-day
delay.
27. The issue of a bank’s liability if it imposed such conditions
on a solicitor without notice are beyond the
scope of this article.
28. Supra note 1.
29. As we proposed in “Lost and Stolen Cheques”, supra
note 1, by using restrictive endorsements “For
deposit only by payee” and “Not payable more than
XX days after date”.
30. Atlantic Potash, supra note 10.
31. Supra note 1.
32. Obviously, if a counterfeit cheque is submitted before
an original, a fraud could still be perpetrated.
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