40-Bank Working Group Established to Guide Launch of the First Blockchain-based Interbank Payments Network

Tassat Group Inc., sponsor of the Digital Interbank Network (The Network), today announced that they are in discussions with more than 200 banks about joining The Network, which will enable member banks to execute secure and instantaneous real-time payments and other banking services between their commercial customers, 24/7/365, via private, permissioned blockchains.

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Kevin R. Greene, Executive Chairman of Tassat Group Inc., named CEO. (Photo: Business Wire)

Tassat has contributed intellectual property and protocols to The Network, which will be owned and governed by its member banks. A 40-bank Working Group has been established by Tassat and will meet in early February to help guide The Network to a planned 2022 launch.

Tassat also announced that Kevin R. Greene, its Executive Chairman, has been named CEO, succeeding Ron Totaro. Greene, who joined Tassat’s Board in 2017, and became chair in 2019, has played a hands-on role since Tassat’s formation, including driving the design and launch of the Network.

“Every bank that has adopted Tassat’s technology has experienced tremendous and demonstrable growth,” said Greene. “Signature Bank, TassatPay’s first customer, has seen enormous growth in deposits, customers, and shareholder value since implementing TassatPay^® as Signet in 2019. The growth of TassatPay and the Digital Interbank Network will continue to enable banks to compete and win in the emerging and rapidly growing digital economy.”

Added Greene, “With TassatPay well-established and the launch of the Digital Interbank Network moving ahead, Ron Totaro decided this was the time to transition to his next venture. I’m excited to take on more responsibility at Tassat, building on Ron’s outstanding work in taking TassatPay to a complete blockchain payments solution for banks and their customers while positioning the company for success going forward.”

Greene joins a powerful, experienced leadership team that includes Kevin Lupowitz as Chief Information Officer; Glen Sussman as President and Chief Operating Officer; and, Al Berg as Chief Information Security Officer, leading a 58-person technology team dedicated to delivering best-in-class payments and banking solutions using blockchain technology.

Lupowitz joined Tassat in 2017 and has led the company’s strategic research and development initiatives. He formerly held senior positions leading the technology development efforts at CLEAR, FXall and Liquidnet Holdings. Sussman has more than two decades of experience scaling technology companies, including SundaySky. Berg has held senior positions in technology security for more than three decades, most recently with Endava.

Working Group will guide The Network to launch

The Network’s capabilities were publicly demonstrated in December 2021 with the first-ever instantaneous, real-time transfer of digital dollars between two banks using blockchain technology.

While TassatPay enables private payments and services between customers of the same bank, The Network will extend these capabilities to B2B customers of all member banks. The Network is differentiated from other proposed payment solutions by:

• Being based on a proven, existing payments platform, one that has processed more than $300 billion in payments since 2019 and generated growth and shareholder value at banks that have adopted its technology;
• Working with banks to ensure that the services they are providing to their customers operate within their bank regulatory perimeters
• Operating on a private, permissioned blockchain rather than a public blockchain, accessible only to member banks and regulators, strengthening privacy and security; and,
• Using tokenized dollars backed one-to-one by U.S. dollars in deposit accounts at regulated, U.S. banks, rather than public and unregulated stablecoins with significant systemic, security and regulatory risks.

“The Network is garnering serious interest from banks in large part due to Tassat’s proven record facilitating more than $300 billion in instantaneous blockchain-based payments using a private, permissioned blockchain to enhance privacy and security,” said Greene. “The Digital Interbank Network provides banks with the tools to compete and win in an increasingly digital economy. It will be the onramp to a fully digital banking system, including not just payments but also smart contracts and T+0 settlement. It is the future of banking – and it’s arriving this year.”

About Tassat Group

Tassat is a technology company that is the leading provider to banks of private blockchain-based, real-time solutions including TassatPay®, which enables banks to provide their customers with instantaneous, secure, real-time payments 24/7/365. Tassat provides an onramp for banks to begin transitioning from legacy technology to blockchain technology that not only will make existing services such as payments more efficient, but also creates opportunities in areas such as smart contracts. Tassat recently was honored with a 2021 Google Cloud Customer Award for innovation in financial services. For more information, visit us at www.tassatpay.com/, on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

About The Digital Interbank Network

The Digital Interbank Network^TM is the first member bank-owned blockchain-based, real-time payment network for banks. Owned and governed by member banks, The Network enables its members to execute instantaneous, secure, real-time payments and other banking services across banks 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The Network is a highly secure, private and permissioned blockchain-based payment instruction and settlement platform that is accessible only by member banks. Tassat, The Network’s sponsor, unveiled the Digital Interbank Network with a live demonstration of the first real-time digital payment between two banks using blockchain technology. For more information, visit www.interbanknetwork.com.

About Kevin R. Greene

In addition to his roles at Tassat, Kevin Greene serves as a Managing Partner of James Alpha Management, an investor in Tassat.

Prior to joining James Alpha, Greene served as Chairman and CEO of Capital Resource Holdings, LLC, the holding company parent of CRA RogersCasey, one of the nation’s leading pension consulting firms. He previously founded Bryant Park Capital, a privately held investment bank specializing in private equity financing and mergers and acquisitions for both private and public companies in the U.S. and Europe. Since 1991, Greene has served as the Chairman and CEO of KR Group, an international consulting and investment banking firm, which he founded. His early career included positions as a Senior Consultant with McKinsey & Co., and as a Senior Commodities Analyst with E.F. Hutton.

Greene holds a B.A. degree in Economics (with distinction) from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in Public Policy (Kennedy Scholar) from Harvard University and an MBA in Finance from New York University. Greene is a former Chairman of the Young Presidents’ Organization’s Manhattan chapter, and has served on many public and private boards.

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