When carrying out various financial transactions that are associated with the transfer of funds from one owner to another, checks are used. In such operations, two correspondents are often involved. One of them is the drawer (issuer of the check), the second is the check holder, that is, the person who receives it.
A check is a security that contains an order from the person who issued it (drawer) to a third party (payer bank). According to this document, the bank must make a payment of the specified amount to the check holder. Bill of exchange - the ancestor of the check, which, in fact, is also a bill, but addressed to a special payer - a banker and drawn on a special form. The idea of creating a check came to bankers and money changers, since they had to work with a narrow circle of clients. So merchants who used the services of one banker agreed among themselves not to pay mutual debts in cash. Instead, they were going to accept orders for payment of debts addressed to the banker to issue a certain amount in the hands or to the account of a counterparty from their account. Over time, communication between cities accelerated, and with this it became possible to use transferable checks. They were orders to pay not to the service banker, but to the one who can help at the moment. At the same time, it was necessary to indicate the account from which it was necessary to write off the funds and the servicing banker. With the appearance of identity documents at the end of the 17th century, it became possible to conduct deposit operations by persons not belonging to the trading class. Checks were used for settlements from deposits, for which the depositor and the bank entered into an agreement to pay the debts of the first, writing off the amounts from his deposit according to the checks presented. In this form, checks are successfully used today. Electronic and plastic money in the form of debit and credit cards is nothing more than checkbooks. Of these, checks are written in their own favor, and their use is associated with the use of modern computer and electronic technology.
