Wells Fargo has deprived banks of a Washington standard-bearer. Big lenders hoped to piggyback on their rival’s lack of Wall Street taint to resist proposals to curb pay and ban merchant banking. But the fake-accounts scandal weakens Wells Fargo’s ability to lead the charge.
Big banks have lately been looking to do battle on several regulatory fronts after backing off for a while. One proposal they want to defeat would force senior officials to defer more than 50 percent of their pay for four years if their bank lost money after taking excessive risk.
