A banking check (or cheque) is a negotiable document that instructs a financial institution to pay a specific amount of money (any kind of currency) from an account held in the depositor's name with that institution. Both parties must have the money and/or the account to deposit the money in. Banking checks are most often secured at the bank and transferred to the payee by the payer. As of late, banking checks can be sent from the bank directly to the payee from many major banking sources.

The history of bank checks begins all the way back in ancient Rome. The Roman are believed to have used an early version of a check. Even with banks Persia, checks existed in the form of letters of credit. Since these ancient times, checks have been used in one form or another to declare a written note that promises or determines an exchange of money from one party to another.

It is also important to know the modern day check and each of its parts. The check has a place of issue, check number, date of issue, payee, amount, signature of the drawer, a routing number that identifies the bank and the processing center, and the fractional routing number (also known as the transit number) that is used to determine the city the check is issued from. A check is normally valid for up to six months after the date of issue. This is not the case if otherwise indicated. Some other countries, such as Australia, allow up to fifteen months. American checks also have a memo line that can indicate the purpose of the check without interfering in any of the other parts of the check. In England, this kind of purpose statement is written on the opposite side of the check.