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Wells Fargo CEO: We'll restore teller pay

Stumpf grilled by Congress

A few highlights from today's House Financial Committee grilling of John G. Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo Bank, the dominant lender in Philadelphia and many other metro areas, after Wells admitted starting 2 million unauthorized consumer accounts,  fired 5,300 in 5 years for improper sales to meet now-cancelled sales goals, and paid $185 million in penalties:

Nydia Fernandez (D-NY): How many employees were filed for failing to meet their sales goals?
Stupmf: People should not be terminated for missing sales goals. I'm not saying it didn't happen. We're doing a review...

Fernandez: Were your front-line small-business loan employees under similar pressure?
Stumpf: I don't know... We'll get back to your staff.

Scott Garrett, R-N.J.: It's extraordinary how Wells Fargo did not move to stop those activities after the first 100 employees... The fact it was able to go on for years is a failure of corporate governance, and a failure, quite candidly of your management...

Most of the 5000 employees were low-level... The highest was a branch manager... That doesn't include those that resigned due to the culture at Wells Fargo... No senior executives have been held accountable... I would not be surprised if a number of those people ended up losing their homes or going into massive debt. I'm not defending their actions...

The well-connected on Wall Street or the well-connected here in Washington, the elite, if you will, seem to play by a different set of rules, while everyone else has to play by another.

You lost $41 million... a quarter of your pay over the last decade... you will forgive all of us if we don't feel sorry...

Velazquez and other Democrats credited bank regulators for spanking Wells Fargo after Los Angeles Times reporters, ex-bank employees and local prosecutors exposed the bank's wrongdoing.

Garrett and other Republicans blamed bank regulators -- who Republicans have regularly beat up as interfering with business -- for not acting against Wells Fargo sooner. 

Several Republicans told Stumpf they felt personally betrayed: Because of Wells Fargo's bad behavior, they expect they will find it harder to push the GOP line of limiting regulation and letting businesses manage their own affairs.