One Thing Still Protected at Equifax Is Pay

The giant Equifax data breach shows once again that the talons on corporate clawback policies remain tiny.

Equifax disclosed earlier this month that a hack of its database may have exposed sensitive personal information including credit card and social security numbers of as many as 143 million consumers. On Friday, the credit-reporting agency said that two executives, its chief security officer, Susan Mauldin, and chief information officer, David Webb, would be leaving the company "effective immediately." Nonetheless, neither Mauldin, Webb, nor other executives at Equifax are likely to experience a direct financial hit, or punishment, from the hacking incident itself, at least not anymore than shareholders. (The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether three other top officials violated insider-trading laws when they sold stock before the company disclosed the hack, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.)