Growing out of this difference in practice regarding the location of financing there has been of late years a distinct difference of practice with respect to the character of the paper by which loans were represented. In the United States the predominant type of bank loans is the "straight single-name note" already described and illustrated (see page 110). This note, as already explained, may be either secured or unsecured. In the same way under the classical foreign practice the predominant type of bank paper was the acceptance, as already explained and illustrated (see page 30). As has been seen, there is no difference in the character of the obligation incurred by the maker of a note and the acceptor of a draft. The two types of financing may, however, lead to somewhat different results. In the older British practice the acceptance was drawn to represent a shipment of goods. The goods accompanied the draft or perhaps followed it within a short time. In the United States the single-name note may or may not represent a shipment of goods. In its best form it represents a lump sum of bank funds or " accommodation" which does not exceed the power of the business at any time to pay out of its "liquid" assets. In American practice, such an advance may be used for any purpose; the test of banking wisdom or prudence being found in keeping the total amount of such advances or loans down to the proper figure. It is true that in Great Britain and some other countries there has of recent years been an increasing practice of lending on "overdraft account" which represents exactly the same banking idea as our own unsecured straight note, the chief technical difference being found in the fact that whereas American practice requires the making of an actual note, foreign overdraft practice merely enters a book charge against the customer.