Wells Fargo has work to do

You don’t expect the nation’s second biggest bank to treat its customers like rubes and its employees like terrified rabbits.

But Wells Fargo’s top brass apparently did just that by setting impossible sales goals that scared many employees into alleged fraudulent activities, such as setting up fake accounts in customers’ names — complete with debit cards, pin numbers and fees — and moving money around to make it look like they had sold more accounts that they had. Last month U.S. and California regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million in connection with the practice.

And while more than 5,000 lower level employees have been canned since 2011, upper level managers have continued to enjoy fat pay packages. There is not much as infuriating to John Q. Public than watching golden parachutes being handed out to CEOs in the wake of such terrible conduct.

About two weeks ago, senators gave a bipartisan whipping to CEO John Stumpf, accusing the bank of fraud. At the senators’ request, the U.S. Department of Labor has started a top-to-bottom investigation into whether the bank harassed and threatened employees with termination in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

For four hours Thursday, a House panel rained contempt upon Stumpf who apologized, laid out remedies to make affected customers whole and said aggressive sales practices would be abandoned. He said the bank’s board, at his recommendation, will require him to forfeit his stock awards and any bonuses and work without salary until the board’s investigation is completed.

That’s a start that minimally shows he’s not tone deaf, but a thorough housecleaning is in order.