<div id="subtitle">American Express CEO gets 60 percent base salary raise to $2 million</div><div><p>The CEO of American Express Co. is getting a 60 percent raise in his base salary.</p><p>Kenneth Chenault's base salary rises to $2 million this year from $1.25 million, according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.</p><p>Chenault, 58, also received options for 650,918 shares, at an exercise price of $38.10 per share, the company said in a separate filing dated Thursday. At that price, the shares are worth about $2.48 million. The options can be exercised in four equal annual installments beginning Jan. 26, 2011.</p><p>Three other executives are getting smaller base salary increases ranging from 21 percent to 33 percent.</p><p>They are Vice Chairman Edward P. Gilligan, whose salary increases to $1.45 million from $1.1 million; Chief Information Officer Stephen J. Squeri, whose salary climbs to $1 million from $750,000; and Chief Financial Officer Daniel T. Henry, whose salary increases to $850,000 from $700,000.</p><p>The raises go into effect Feb. 1.</p><p>The company said the increases shift compensation for the executives toward a higher base pay and lower incentive awards. Executive compensation still is weighted toward long-term incentives, particularly stock-based awards, it said.</p><p>Chenault's 2009 total compensation has not yet been filed.</p><p>In 2008 he was paid $42.9 million, a large portion was stock options and awards, the value of which fell considerably when the stock dropped more than 60 percent.</p><p>He declined a bonus for 2008, although the other executives were paid multimillion dollar bonuses that year.</p><p>New York-based American Express earlier this month said its profit jumped in the final three months of the year as the company set aside less money to cover bad loans.</p><p>The credit card company earned $716 million in the quarter, or 60 cents per share, up from $240 million, or 21 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.</p><p>On an adjusted basis, excluding discontinued operations, the company earned 59 cents per share, which beat analysts' estimate of 57 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.</p><p>The gain broke a streak of eight consecutive quarters of falling profits.</p><p>The company earned $1.54 per share for the full year, just missing analysts' forecast of $1.55 per share. The company earned $2.32 per share in 2008.</p><p>Shares rose 23 cents to close at $37.66 Friday.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68058807&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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