A commercial paper that is sold directly by issuers to individual investors without the intervention of a securities dealer as an intermediary. This type of commercial paper is mostly issued by financial firms in their efforts to acquire a continuous source of funds from which new loans to customers can be provided without disruption. Issuing commercial paper in this manner is typically done for cost considerations (it is more cost-effective for a large financial firm to employ its own sales force to sell commercial paper directly to investors).