What Is a “Chinese Wall” in Financial Regulation and How Is It Enforced in a Digital Context?

A "Chinese Wall" is an ethical and regulatory barrier intended to prevent the flow of material non-public information between different departments within a financial institution (e.g. between investment banking and trading). In a digital context, this is enforced through strict access controls on internal systems, network segmentation, mandatory data logging, and surveillance that monitors communication and data access between employees in separated departments.