Wells Fargo

As eye-catching as the scandals at Wells Fargo are, the most shocking thing is that federal regulators have taken no meaningful action against the bank’s executives.

Equifax observed an increasingly well-worn ritual of scandal-ridden firms by jettisoning CEO Richard Smith: apologize, promise to do better in the future, and sacrifice your top executive in the hopes it will ward off action by Congress and regulators.

Democrats have striven to paint recent scandals at Wells Fargo and Equifax as prime examples of why a regulatory rule banning mandatory arbitration agreements should be upheld, but Republicans are not wavering on their desire to overturn it.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Wells Fargo’s treatment of customers was “egregious and unacceptable," hinting that more regulatory action was likely.

Without the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's expanding consumers' legal options, they will continue to be vulnerable to the abusive practices that have proliferated throughout the financial industry in recent years.