Acceptance refers to a promise made by the payee of a time bill of exchange to sign on the bill of exchange, indicating that the amount of the bill of exchange will be paid on the due date and recorded on the front of the bill of exchange. Acceptance is a legal system unique to time bills of exchange. A time bill of exchange that has not been accepted is not legally binding on the payee.
From the above, it can be seen that acceptance has the following meanings.
(1) Acceptance is a subsidiary bill of exchange act. Acceptance is based on the basic bill of exchange act of issuing a bill, that is, acceptance is only effective when the issue of a bill of exchange is valid.
(2) Time bills of exchange can be accepted. For sight bills of exchange, since the holder can request payment immediately, the payee can either agree to pay or refuse to pay, so there is no need for acceptance. The rights of the holder of a time bill of exchange are uncertain before payment, so acceptance is required to confirm them.
(3) The payee of a bill of exchange does not automatically become the bill debtor due to the order or entrustment of the drawee. Only after acceptance does he bear absolute payment responsibility and thus become the principal debtor of the bill of exchange.
(4) Acceptance is a formal legal act, and the payee must record the word “accepted” on the front of the bill of exchange and sign and indicate the date.
Acceptance of bills of exchange can be divided into general acceptance and restricted acceptance according to whether there are restrictions.
(1) General acceptance, also called simple acceptance, means that the payee accepts the bill in full accordance with the text of the bill of exchange without attaching any restrictions. Under normal circumstances, bill acceptance is mostly simple acceptance.
(2) Restricted acceptance refers to the payee’s acceptance of the bill of exchange by restricting or changing the text of the bill of exchange. This type of acceptance is divided into partial acceptance and conditional acceptance. Partial acceptance means that the payee only accepts part of the bill amount. my country’s “Bills of Exchange Law” does not allow partial acceptance of the bill amount. Conditional acceptance means that the payee attaches certain conditions when accepting. For example, when accepting a bill, the payee may attach conditions such as “payment will be made only after receiving the drawee’s funds before the due date”, “acceptance will be invalid if payment is not requested within ×× days after the due date”, or “endorsement is prohibited after acceptance of this bill”. The bill laws of most countries stipulate that conditional acceptance is deemed as refusal of acceptance. If the holder of the bill accepts, he must obtain the consent of the drawee and the previous endorser, and the acceptor shall still bear the responsibility according to the attached conditions. my country’s “Bills of Exchange Law” does not recognize conditional acceptance, which is regarded as refusal of acceptance.
In addition, bills of exchange can be divided into formal acceptance (full acceptance) and ordinary acceptance (abbreviated acceptance) according to their form. Formal acceptance means recording the word “acceptance” or its similar meaning on the front of the bill of exchange, and the payee signs (seals). Ordinary acceptance means that only the payee signs (seals) on the front of the bill of exchange without recording any meaning. If there is a signature (seal) of the payee on the front of the bill of exchange, it is deemed to be accepted regardless of whether the signatory has the intention to accept. However, Article 42 of my country’s Bills of Exchange Law stipulates that if the payee accepts a bill of exchange, the word “acceptance” must be written on the front of the bill of exchange. Therefore, my country does not recognize the validity of ordinary acceptance bills of exchange.