Chinese wall

Chinese wall

A figurative barrier meant to impede or silence the flow of information between two or more parties so as to stop or limit conflicts of interest from arising, as in investment banking or law firms. An allusion to the Great Wall of China. "Wall" is sometimes capitalized. Because of the sheer size of the company, many departments represent competing clients and interests, so several Chinese walls are in place to make sure no one can be accused of benefitting from insider knowledge.
See also: Chinese, wall
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Chinese wall

A barrier that sets apart conflicting interests within an organization. Analogous to and named for the Great Wall of China, intended to keep out invaders, it has become, according to David Segal of the New York Times (“Chinese Walls, Pocked with Peepholes,” June 14, 2010), a metaphor/cliché for separating the parts of an organization focused on profits from sections concerned with other matters. The usage dates from the 1970s and has been applied not only to financial institutions but to groups of doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals.
See also: Chinese, wall
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • bamboo
  • bamboo ceiling
  • ceiling
  • put on the brakes
  • put the brakes on
  • put the brakes on (someone or something)
  • put the brakes on something
  • put the clamps on
  • put the clamps on (someone or something)
  • put the clamps on someone/something
References in periodicals archive
Nash, "The Chinese Wall security policy," in Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp.
A rigorous, defined software clean-room method employs both a Chinese wall and the clean-room software-engineering technology and process.
The JOBS Act has all but eviscerated this Chinese wall for qualifying companies--allowing analysts to create interest in a stock that is the subject of an offering even as their firms profit from underwriting the offering.
Chinese Wall was recorded in London and produced by Phil Collins.
Chinese wall policy (U,{[ob.sub.1], [ob.sub.2]}, op) claims that user u is permitted to do an operation op only on one of the objects [ob.sub.1] and [ob.sub.2], but not both.
Manafy: Last week I was reading an article on a different magazine analyzing how the implosion in the advertising business model is forcing publishers to re-evaluate the height (and even the existence) of the vaulted "Chinese Wall." We all need to pay the mortgage, that's fair.
attorney was mollified once Rehnquist assured them that there would be a "Chinese wall" that separated the two investigations.
It's not a choice that can be pondered unemotionally, but the characters remind each other to maintain a "Chinese wall," an imaginary demarcation between work and personal/emotional life.
Like most investment banks, Carlton separates its principal and advisory group with distinct personnel and the "quintessential Chinese wall," the firm said
Creating a "Chinese wall" in North America will subvert any effort to gain a larger share of a market which still has the biggest growth potential of any market in the world.
The establishment of internal rules and procedures designed to prevent the passage of confidential information from one part of a firm of lawyers to another is often referred to as the erection of a 'Chinese wall'.
THE TREATMENT OF TWO CHINESE WALL PAINTING FRAGMENTS.
We decided that we had to have a "Chinese wall" between the bishops and us.
Back in China, he began collecting for the ROM, sending pre-historic pottery, jade ornaments, Buddhist sculptures, and Chinese wall paintings, among others.
The firm then can erect a "Chinese wall" between the regular and the investigative accountants and their respective files.