paying cheques drawn on him/her and also collecting cheques for his/her customers. In most common law jurisdictions there is a Bills of Exchange Act that codifies the law in relation to negotiable instruments, including cheques, and this Act contains a statutory definition of the term banker: banker includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not, who carry on the business of banking' (Section 2, Interpretation). Although this definition seems circular, it is actually functional, because it ensures that the legal basis for bank transactions such as cheques does not depend on how the bank is structured or regulated. The business of banking is in many common law countries not defined by statute but by common law, the definition above. In other English common law jurisdictions there