This is definitely genuine leather.  Its very soft and flexible and, so far, I'm very pleased with it.  Granted, it doesn't have a lot of pockets and/or slots for credit cards, cash and other things but, that's not what I wanted it for in the first place.  I needed a good checkbook cover and this seems to be a really good and well-made one.  My only complaint is that I ordered the dark brown color (I double-checked my receipt and original order documents and I DID order the correct color) but I was shipped the black one instead.  But, that's actually just a minor annoyance to me.  The main things I was after were quality and function and this seems to ace both.  :-)