Card network American Express paid CEO Stephen Squeri $28.5 million in "total direct compensation" last year, giving him a 39% increase over its 2021 target of $20.5 million, according to the company's proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
It was an even bigger boost over his 2020 compensation of $19.96 million, according to the calculation provided by the company. Squeri’s compensation was approved at Tuesday's annual meeting of AmEx shareholders.
While the 2021 target for Squeri’s long-term incentive awards was $14.5 million, the actual amount was $19 million. Squeri’s base salary remained the same from 2020 to 2021, at $1.5 million, and is just 5% of his total compensation pay mix for 2021, according to the March proxy filing. The remaining 95% of Squeri’s compensation in 2021 is performance-based, and 67% is tied to the company’s future performance.
Squeri, who has held the chairman and CEO role since 2018, “has built a culture focused on backing customers, colleagues and communities and has evolved the company’s operating model through an enterprise-wide strategy focused on delivering sustainable, long-term growth,” the company wrote in its filing.
Squeri’s compensation reflects both the target set at the beginning of 2021 and incentive award decisions the compensation and benefits committee made in January, “which took into consideration 2021 performance and external market data” provided by the committee’s independent consultant, according to the filing.
AmEx laid out a new growth plan in January that raised expectations for the year and beyond, driven by higher spending by cardholders and new card acquisitions.
Squeri's compensation falls roughly in line with that of other CEOs in finance. His $28.5 million for 2021 ranks him higher than all but four bank CEOs. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman made $35 million for 2021, while JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon made $34.5 million. Bank of America paid CEO Brian Moynihan $32 million for the year. The CEOs of Citi and Wells Fargo made less than Squeri.
The payout comes a year after a proxy season that saw at least one institutional investor oppose fellow card network Mastercard's compensation plan for its former CEO. Ultimately, about three-quarters of the approximately 815 million Mastercard shares cast last year favored a proposal that gave Ajay Banga, the company's executive chairman, $27.77 million in compensation for 2020, his last year as CEO.
AmEx, in its filing this year, noted its total compensation figure differs from the number in the summary compensation table — the SEC’s required disclosure — with the main difference being the timing of disclosure related to equity awards.
That summary compensation table shows Squeri’s 2021 total compensation at $25.5 million, up from $24.2 million in 2020.
