Drawer

In finance, the term drawer denotes a person or other entity which instructs another party (the drawee) to pay money or assets to themselves or to a third party.

Most commonly, the term is used to denote account holders who initiate drafts. A bank, securities broker, prepaid service or any other entity which accepts your money in exchange for an account balance which can be withdrawn is a drawee. When you draw on your account balance by instructing the drawee to pay out or transfer money, you are the drawer.

When you withdraw money from your bank account at the till or using an automated teller machine (ATM), you are the drawer because you are making use of the bank’s promise to repay the money which you invested in it. When you write a check or use your checking card to authorize a third party to draw money on your account, you are the drawer because you are instructing your bank to pay money which it owes you to a third party. The same holds true when you instruct your bank to transfer money to another bank account via a wire transfer or direct debit.

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