cheque

cheque

a BILL OF EXCHANGE drawn on a banker, payable on demand. A cheque operates as a mandate or authority to the drawee's bank to pay the party named as drawer and debit the account of its customer, the drawer. Cheques are essentially negotiable instruments and may be negotiated by indorsement. The Bills of Exchange Act 1882, however, provides that a cheque may be crossed. In this case the cheque should be presented for payment by a bank (rather than the person named as drawee). If accompanied by the words ‘not negotiable’, this has the effect that the cheque cannot be negotiated, and the words ‘account payee’ or ‘account payee only’ mean that the cheque cannot be passed on to another.