Glossary
Wikipedia: Negotiable instrument
A negotiable instrument is a document guaranteeing the payment of a specific amount of money, either on demand, or at a set time, whose payer is usually named on the document.
A negotiable instrument can serve to convey value constituting at least part of the performance of a contract, albeit perhaps not obvious in contract formation, in terms inherent in and arising from the requisite offer and acceptance and conveyance of consideration.
In the Commonwealth of Nations almost all jurisdictions have codified the law relating to negotiable instruments in a Bills of Exchange Act, e.g. Bills of Exchange Act 1882 in the UK, Bills of Exchange Act 1890 in Canada, Bills of Exchange Act 1908 in New Zealand, Bills of Exchange Act 1909 in Australia, the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 in India and the Bills of Exchange Act 1914 in Mauritius.
A cheque is a negotiable instrument instructing a financial institution to pay a specific amount of a specific currency from a specified transactional account held in the drawer's name with that institution. Both the drawer and payee may be natural persons or legal entities.
Cheques are a type of bill of exchange that were developed as a way to make payments without the need to carry large amounts of money. Paper money evolved from promissory notes, another form of negotiable instrument similar to cheques in that they were originally a written order to pay the given amount to whoever had it in their possession (the "bearer").
A cashier's check (or cashier's cheque, cashier's order, official check; in Canada, the term bank draft is used, not to be confused with Banker's draft as used in the United States) is a check guaranteed by a bank, drawn on the bank's own funds and signed by a bank employee. Cashier's checks are treated as guaranteed funds because the bank, rather than the purchaser, is both the drawee and drawer and is responsible for paying the amount.
A banker's draft (also called a bank cheque, bank draft in Canada or, in the US, a teller's check) is a cheque (or check) provided to a customer of a bank or acquired from a bank for remittance purposes, that is drawn by the bank, and drawn on another bank or payable through or at a bank.[1] In Canada, the term "bank draft" includes both this kind of check and, in practice almost always,[2] the instrument known elsewhere as a cashier's check.
A normal cheque represents an instruction to transfer a sum of money from the drawer's account to the payee's account
In the United States, under the Uniform Commercial Code, a negotiable instrument (such as a check or promissory note) that is payable to the order of "bearer" or "cash" may be enforced (i.e. redeemed for payment) by the party in possession. The payee (i.e. the person named in the "pay to" line) may also convert an instrument into a bearer instrument by endorsing (signing) the back.
Wikipedia: Banker's acceptance
A banker's acceptance is a document issued by a bank institution that represents a bank's commitment to make a requested future payment. The request will typically specify the payee, the amount, and the date on which it is eligible for payment. After acceptance, the request becomes an unconditional liability of the bank.