Commercial paper is an unsecured (secured only by the reputation of the issuer), short-term (usually 2 to 30 days and not more than 270 days) debt.instrument issued by a large corporation to obtain funds to meet short-term obligations.
According to Block and Hirt, "Commercial paper represents a short term, unsecured note, issued to the public in minimum units of $25,000.”
According to Khan and Jain, "Commercial paper is a short term unsecured regotiable instrument, consisting of issuance promissory notes with a fixed maturity.”
Commercial paper is the short-term, unsecured IOUs offered to investors in the money market by major corporations with the strongest credit ratings.
Commercial paper (sometimes referred to as corporate IOUs) the unsecured promissory notes of large financially sound corporations.
Commercial paper is a short-term note that represents a loan to a major corporation with a high credit standing.