firewall

The legal barrier between banking and broker-dealer operations within a financial institution created to prevent the exchange of inside information. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary

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firewall fire‧wall [ˈfaɪəwɔːl ǁ ˈfaɪrwɒːl] noun [countable]

1. COMPUTING a system that protects a computer network from being used or looked at by people who do not have permission to do so:

• British Aerospace uses a firewall so that individuals cannot be looked up in the directory of users.

2. FINANCE LAW a system which is used by large financial and law companies to stop sensitive or confidential information being passed from one department to another; = CHINESE WALL:

• It is in the interests of the universal bank to put in effect internal precautions such as firewalls.

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firewall UK US /ˈfaɪəwɔːl/ noun [C]

► IT a computer system or program that prevents someone from seeing or using information on a computer without permission, especially someone using the internet: »

Without a firewall, all your files could be instantly accessible to any competent hacker from anywhere in the world.

► BANKING, FINANCE a way of making sure that one part of banking does not affect another by separating the operations of the two, especially so that investment banking should not negatively affect the banking sector that ordinary people use: »

One banking executive stated, ""Creating a firewall between retail and investment operations may not be as simple as it first seems"".

► FINANCE CHINESE WALL(Cf. ↑Chinese wall)