A security that starts as an instrument similar to as check, in which a customer asks the bank to pay the designated amount to a payee in the future. The bank accepts the order, becoming responsible for payment, because the customer has the money to back the check, and then that instrument can sold by the holder to get the cash immediately. Because the bank has to be agreed to pay it, no matter what the instrument is easier to sell than if it were simply a check written from a customer to the payee.