Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
muraille de Chine
English translation:
Chinese wall
French term
France
Excellence, Expertise & Experience
Native in: English (Variants: UK, Scottish, Irish, British, Wales / Welsh)
Works in: French to English, English
muraille de Chine
Les collaborateurs du côté public d'une muraille sont ceux qui réalisent leur activité, uniquement à partir d’informations publiques.
Les collaborateurs du côté privé d'une muraille sont ceux qui, dans le cadre de leur activité, utilisent régulièrement de l’information confidentielle (voire privilégiée)."
"L'organisation de ************** [name of bank] est basée sur une stricte ségrégation des métiers, notamment par l'existence de ***murailles de Chine*** (Séparation fonctionnelle et géographique des métiers)."
Is there any specific term for this in banking or should I just call it a "strict separation" or some such?
The bank does fund management, private banking, etc.
| 4 +10 | Chinese wall |
DLyons
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| 4 +1 | internal barriers in professions and trades |
nweatherdon
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| 4 | firewall |
Francois Boye
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Non-PRO (1): philgoddard
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Proposed translations
Chinese wall
| Strange, nothing much came up when I first searched. Maybe I searched with "Great Wall". http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chinesewall.asp |
| And thanks, goes without saying. |
| agree |
philgoddard
: I think it would be wrong to translate this in any other way.
24 mins
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Thanks Phil.
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| agree |
Charles Davis
: With Phil. This term is quite familiar to me.
1 hr
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Thanks Charles.
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| agree |
erwan-l
2 hrs
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Thanks erwan-l.
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| agree |
Jean-Claude Gouin
3 hrs
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Thanks 1045.
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| agree |
Edgar Bettridge
4 hrs
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Thanks Edgar.
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| agree |
Wendy Streitparth
8 hrs
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Thanks Wendy.
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| agree |
Daryo
: pretty standard, should be familliar to anyone with even a mild interest in finance and banking ...
9 hrs
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Thanks Daryo.
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| agree |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
9 hrs
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Thanks Nikki.
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| agree |
Jennifer Forbes
: Definitely "Chinese walls" in a banking context, as opposed to "Wall of China" in other contexts.
11 hrs
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Thanks Jenny.
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| neutral |
nweatherdon
: I wonder if this could be confused for the "Great Chinese Firewall"
15 hrs
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I don't think so. IMHO, firewall is rarely used except in its IS sense.
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| agree |
papier
22 hrs
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Thanks papier.
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Canada
Economics, finance and biosciences
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, English to French, Spanish to English, and 2 more.
internal barriers in professions and trades
| "Barrier" is definitely better than my "separation", and quite appropriately so, a strong word is required. Thanks! |
United States
An economic geek with social skills
Native in: French 
Works in: English to French, French to English, Spanish to English, and 1 more.
firewall
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Note added at 2 hrs (2015-06-28 00:57:03 GMT)
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http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/firewall.html
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/147f6284-19c5-11e1-9888-00144...
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/28235/firewall-bank-acc...
| neutral |
Daryo
: only the first reference has some connection to the ST // A "firewall bank account" has NOTHING to do with this ST
7 hrs
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Not quite! in either case, the flow of information is controlled. Transparency is impeded.
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Reference comments
“Chinese Wall” - Financial institutions
“The ethical barrier between different divisions of a financial (or other) institution to avoid conflict of interest. A Chinese Wall is said to exist, for example, between the corporate-advisory area and the brokering department of a financial services firm to separate those giving corporate advice on takeovers from those advising clients about buying shares. The "wall" is thrown up to prevent leaks of corporate inside information, which could influence the advice given to clients making investments, and allow staff to take advantage of facts that are not yet known to the general public.”
| @ Daryo: if my TV lands on Bloomberg it's because I've hit the wrong button... |
| neutral |
Francois Boye
: the common expression in the US is firewall, a metaphor inspired by computer networks
44 mins
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| agree |
Jean-Claude Gouin
: Très bien expliqué. Je ne crois pas qu'aux États-Unis, on utilise 'firewall' ...
3 hrs
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| agree |
Wendy Streitparth
6 hrs
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| agree |
Daryo
: as some point it was so used and overused that you couldn't miss it ...
7 hrs
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| agree |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
12 hrs
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Psychologist, Court-certified legal
Native in: English
Works in: French to English
Difference between "CHinese wall" and "firewall" in financial contexts
See Erwan_L’s reference post above http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chinesewall.asp and then compare with the source’s entry for firewall. There is a distinction: one is a ethical barrier, the other is a legal barrier. The confusing thing can be, as the source explains, that “firewall” also has a meaning in the context of IT.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/firewall.asp
DEFINITION of 'Firewall'
Legal barriers that prevent both the transference of inside information and the performance of financial transactions between commercial and investment banks.
INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS 'Firewall'
Restrictions placed on collaborations between banks and brokerage firms under the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, acted as a form of firewall.
This works similarly to fire wall software and hardware used in preventing or limiting outside access to a company's internal servers and networks.
Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/firewall.asp#ixzz3eLQzaX...
Follow us: @Investopedia on Twitter
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Note added at 15 hrs (2015-06-28 14:00:29 GMT)
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And there was the clue that the term in the ST is "muraille de Chine" and not "Grande Muraille de Chine", ditto the English "Chinese wall" rather than "Great Wall of China". ;-)
| That clarifies it. Interesting that the term make the trip from finance to IT initially when today we would assume that it was the other away around. |
Discussion
https://books.google.ie/books?id=824Pt_SzDmkC&pg=PA161
Previously, it was commonly used to mean an impregnable barrier for things other than information.
I'd always mentally associated it with Turing and Searle but that seems to be wrong http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/