Promissory Note

A written, dated and signed two-party instrument containing an unconditional promise by the maker to pay a definite sum of money to a payee on demand or at a specified future date. 



|||The only difference between a promissory note and a bill of exchange is that the maker of a note pays the payee personally, rather than ordering a third party to do so. 

When a bank is the maker promising to repay money it has received plus interest, the promissory note is called a certificate of deposit (CD).