Discover Financial Services (DFS) Chairman and Chief Executive David Nelms' compensation rose 62% in fiscal 2011 as the credit-card lender posted higher profit and increased loans.

Nelms was rewarded $13.9 million for the year ended Nov. 30, according to the company's annual proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. Nelms made $8.6 million in the previous year.

Compensation for the most recent year included $1 million in base salary, $9.6 million in stock awards and $3.2 million in incentive-plan compensation.

His prior year package included $4.6 million in base salary, $2.3 million in stock awards and a $1.7 million bonus.

Discover, among the largest issuers of credit cards, has benefited over the last year as borrowers have increasingly paid their bills on time. This has allowed the company to sock away less money to cover soured loans. The company has also continued to push into newer products, including personal and student loans, to widen its portfolio. It plans to originate mortgages as part of a pending deal to acquire a mortgage platform from Tree.com Inc. (TREE).

For the quarter ended Nov. 30, Discover reported a profit of $513 million, or 95 cents a share, up from a prior-year profit of $350 million, or 64 cents a share. The company has among the lowest delinquency and net charge-off rates in the credit-card industry.

Discover's shares are up 39% over the last year. The shares closed up 1.1% Thursday at $30.04 and were inactive premarket.

-By Andrew R. Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3214; andrew.r.johnson@dowjones.com

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