George Mikan of insurance technology company Bright Health Group Inc. emerged as the top-paid CEO in the U.S. financial technology sector in 2021, as his total compensation jumped 3,194.2% from 2020 to $180.8 million.

According to Bright Health's proxy statement filed in April, Mikan's base salary for 2021 was $1.3 million, up 117% from $600,000 in 2020.

Much of Mikan's 2021 payout, however, came from stock incentives and option awards, an analysis of S&P Global Market Intelligence data showed.

Stock incentives, option awards prop up CEO payouts

In February 2021, Bright Health's board granted Mikan over 7.8 million options incentives with a reassessed fair value of close to $83.7 million to incentivize the CEO to successfully complete the company's IPO.

In May 2021, the board approved a special equity grant as a retention incentive for Mikan through performance-based restricted stock unit awards worth close to $68.4 million, effective upon Bright Health's IPO completion on June 28, 2021. In December 2021, the board gave Mikan a one-time retention grant of special restricted stock units worth close to $26.5 million.

The May 2021 and December 2021 stock grants totaled about $94.8 million, more than half of Mikan's total 2021 payout.

SoFi Technologies Inc.'s Anthony Noto was the fintech space's second-highest paid CEO in 2021, with his total compensation nearly doubling to $103.0 million.

Like Mikan, Noto's total compensation in 2021 was propped up by an increase in stock awards to $101.2 million from $52.1 million in 2020. Noto's base salary also was raised by more than $600,000 to $850,000.

Marqeta CEO highest paid in payments space

In the U.S. payments industry, Marqeta Inc.'s Jason Gardner was the top-paid CEO in 2021, with his total compensation skyrocketing by 13,157.6% to $224.4 million.

Gardner's base salary was unchanged from 2020 and his 2021 bonus of $258,125 was smaller than the $307,518 he received in 2020. But Gardner's option awards, worth $223.8 million, accounted for most of his 2021 total compensation.

Ronald Clarke of FLEETCOR Technologies Inc. was the second-highest paid CEO in the U.S. payments space, as his total compensation jumped 4,317.5% to $57.9 million.

Most of Clarke's reported 2021 total compensation came from performance option awards worth $55.6 million. According to FLEETCOR's proxy statement filed in April, however, since Clarke received no equity awards in 2020 and agreed to also not receive any for 2022 and 2023, the reported amount in 2021 represents Clarke's entire equity compensation awards for the four-year period from 2020 to 2023, so it is viewed as about $13.9 million on an annualized basis.

PayPal Holdings Inc.'s Daniel Schulman was the payments space's third-highest paid CEO in 2021, with $32.1 million in total compensation, up from about $23.4 million in 2020. Schulman's 2021 payout was lifted largely by higher stock awards worth $29.9 million against the previous year's $21.0 million.

* Read the S&P Global Market Intelligence Executive Compensation Review for U.S. banks and thrifts as per GICS classification. * Download a template for U.S. bank and thrift executive compensation peer analysis.