Protego Trust Bank N.A., a purpose-built, federally chartered trust bank (in formation) to serve the digital asset needs of institutional investors, named financial technology leader Ron Totaro as its chief executive officer.

Totaro brings more than three decades of financial services expertise building and leading fin-tech, banking, payments and blockchain companies. Most recently, he served as CEO of Tassat Group, where he led the company to become the market-leading provider of blockchain-based, real-time payment solutions enabling banks to tokenize U.S. dollar deposits and transition from legacy payment rails to blockchain technologies. The company won a 2021 Google Cloud Innovation Award.

“Ron brings a solid understanding of digital asset and blockchain technology as well as strong relationships with banking and private equity leaders,” said Greg Gilman, founder and CEO of Protego Holdings Corp. “I am looking forward to working with him to finalize the OCC approval process and launch our much-needed bank platform for institutional investors to securely custody, trade, lend and issue digital assets including cryptocurrencies.”

During his career, Totaro has served as an executive, board member and advisor to public companies, as well as private equity and venture capital-backed businesses, earning a reputation for scaling businesses while driving revenue and profit growth. As chief operating officer at ACI Worldwide, he led the transformation of the business while driving accelerated top and bottom line growth. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at FICO, GE Capital and American Express.

Advertisement

“Current market dynamics in cryptocurrencies and digital assets reinforce the need for institutional investors to have a trusted partner that shares their values, processes and desired outcomes,” said Totaro. “I’m looking forward to working alongside our expert team to deliver a full spectrum of digital asset services as a federally chartered trust bank.”

Totaro’s appointment follows recent additions to Protego Trust’s board of directors and advisory board of industry and regulatory leaders.