what is a chinese wall 
the offensive term chinese wall describes a virtual barrier intended to block the exchange of information between departments if it might result in business activities that are ethically or legally questionable the term is harmful given its cultural insensitivities and ethical wall is seen as a more appropriate term to prevent linguistic discrimination in the united states corporations brokerage firms investment banks and retail banks have used ethical walls to describe situations where there is a need to maintain confidentiality in order to prevent conflicts of interest over the years large financial institutions have used ethical wall policies as a means to self regulate their business dealings by creating ethical boundaries between departments however these efforts have not always been effective thus the securities and exchange commission sec has enacted regulations governing how financial institutions share information the sec has implemented fines penalties and legal consequences for companies that break these regulations 