Press Release

COHEN & COMPANY CONTINUES EXPANSION OF INSTITUTIONAL BROKER-DEALER BUSINESS; HIRES MULTIPLE SALES AND TRADING SENIOR EXECUTIVES IN CORPORATE DEBT, MORTGAGE AND ASSET BACKED SECURITIES

Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY - September 30, 2008 - Cohen & Company, an investment firm specializing in credit related fixed income investments, today announced the continued phased expansion of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, the company’s institutional broker-dealer focused on debt securities.

As a part of a carefully planned second phase of expansion, the firm announced the following recent sales and trading hires at the Managing Director level for its broker-dealer platform:

• Chris Drabin joins Cohen & Company as a mortgage-backed securities trader, and has 15 years of experience trading agency and non-agency product at several top institutional broker-dealers, including PaineWebber, Cantor Fitzgerald and Jefferies.



• Frank Henson specializes in institutional corporate debt sales and previously worked at Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns, where he was an Institutional Investor Top Three analyst covering the Retail industry.



• Rob Cooper joins Cohen & Company in San Francisco as an institutional mortgage securities sales executive. He previously worked with Jefferies.



• Charlie Kapp, based in Chicago and focused on institutional mortgage securities sales, is a 20-year industry veteran who most recently worked at Kidder Peabody.



• Larry Lawrence, an industry veteran in corporate debt sales, will continue to focus on this area as well as structured credit at Cohen & Company.

Christopher Ricciardi, Cohen & Company’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are delighted to welcome so much seasoned talent in institutional credit fixed income sales and trading to our company’s brokerdealer platform. The senior personnel in corporate, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities that we have successfully recruited will provide us with the critical mass we need to build Cohen & Company Securities into the leader in our space.

“As major financial institutions retreat from the credit fixed income space, multiple opportunities are emerging for more focused, nimbler players with deep existing expertise in this area. The hires we have made over the course of this year, combined with our leading-edge analytics and technology platform, place us in an excellent position to capitalize on these opportunities. We look forward to continuing to build on our sales and trading platform in the coming months.”

About Cohen & Company

Cohen & Company is an investment firm specializing in credit related fixed income investments. Through Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, the company also provides institutional broker-dealer services focused on debt securities. With offices in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Paris, London and Tokyo, Cohen & Company serves a diverse international network of institutional and individual clients. For more information about Cohen & Company, we encourage you to visit www.cohenandcompany.com.