what is the gramm beach bliley act 
the gramm beach bliley act was introduced in 1999 to protect customers from financial firms sharing their sensitive data and information the act repealed parts of the glass steagall act of 1933 which had previously prohibited banks from offering investment commercial banking and insurance services the glba aimed to modernize the financial industry by allowing these different types of financial institutions to merge and operate under a single holding company the bottom lineethical walls are commonly used in business financial and legal professions to protect customers information from external departments in order to prevent conflicts of interest in the financial services sector ethical walls came to the forefront during the height of the dotcom boom with regulatory changes requiring financial firms to provide only one type of service instead of combining insurance banking and investment management businesses while an ethical wall has come a long way from the original offensive term that was used for the concept it remains an important part of business ethics to help ensure the privacy of customers data while improving disclosure of information sharing practices especially in the financial industry 