Payments giant Fiserv has signed a new five-year employment contract with CEO Frank Bisignano that gives him a 6% salary boost.

The contract, which took effect Dec. 21, 2022, increases Bisignano’s annual salary to $1.4 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously, his base salary was $1.32 million, according to the company’s 2022 proxy filing.  

The contract extends Bisignano’s term as the Brookfield, Wisconsin-based company’s chief executive and president to Dec. 21, 2027. Bisignano, 63, is also the company’s board chairman. 

At the end of the new agreement’s five-year period, the employment agreement automatically renews for one-year terms unless either Bisignano or the company seeks to terminate it, according to the contract attached to the filing. His previous contract, which was signed in 2019 and has been amended since then, had an initial term through July 2025, the company’s proxy filing said.

Under the new contract, Bisignano also receives a target annual incentive of at least $2.5 million, equity awards, use of the company’s aircraft for personal travel and a company car and driver, among other benefits.

Amid a tougher macroeconomic environment last year, Bisignano said the company is “maniacally focused” on expense management. Fiserv shed employees and sold off business units in 2022 as it faced profit margin pressure. But even as Fiserv made cuts, the company hired thousands of workers last year, Bisignano told Payments Dive during a recent interview.

Bisignano’s annual compensation target had previously been between $10 million and $15 million, according to the 2022 proxy filing. In 2021, Bisignano’s total compensation was $20.4 million, according to the proxy’s summary compensation table.  

“With a deep commitment to clients and a proven track record of execution, Frank has been a driving force in the growth and global technology leadership at Fiserv,” Doyle Simons, the company’s lead director, said in a Dec. 21 press release regarding the new contract. “Frank’s continued leadership enables us to create further value for our shareholders.”

Bisignano has been Fiserv’s CEO since July 2020, succeeding previous CEO Jeff Yabuki. Bisignano joined Fiserv through the company’s 2019 acquisition of First Data, where he served as CEO at the time of the merger.

In November 2022, Fiserv’s board adopted an executive severance policy resembling a prior shareholder proposal that had won shareholder approval earlier last year. Under that policy, when the company enters into a new employment, severance or separation agreement with an executive officer that provides cash benefits exceeding 2.99 times the sum of the salary and target bonus, the company will include an advisory vote on that severance arrangement at its next annual shareholders meeting, according to a filing with the SEC. 

The same notice requirement applies when Fiserv establishes a new severance policy that affects such severance cash benefits.

By Caitlin Mullen on Jan 3, 2023
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