Press Release

COHEN & COMPANY SECURITIES ANNOUNCES ADDITION OF NEW UNDERWRITING AND DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM
– New Business Led By Industry Veteran Lew Goldman –

New York, NY – May 4, 2010 Cohen & Company Securities, LLC (“Cohen & Company Securities”), Cohen & Company’s registered broker-dealer, is pleased to announce that Lew Goldman has joined Cohen & Company Securities from Pali Capital. Lew has over 25 years of capital markets experience having built a number of successful dealers in his career. At Pali Capital, Lew was head of Credit, Sales, Trading, and Origination and was responsible for building their fixed income platform. Lew joins other recent hires of his former staff at Cohen who together will continue building out their origination, trading and distribution platform to middle market money managers and other broker dealers.

Lew said “I am very excited about the opportunity presented to my team and myself here at Cohen. The commitment by Cohen to support our business sends a strong message to the market that Cohen & Company wants to be a larger participant in the fixed income arena”. The new group will underwrite new issue brokered deposits, trade secondary deposits, create and trade structured notes, trade high grade corporate bonds and other fixed income products. Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, CEO, Christopher Ricciardi, said “We are thrilled to have someone with Lew’s experience join our growing fixed income platform, and look forward to the expansion of our customer base through the group’s underwriting and distribution capabilities.

About Cohen & Company Inc.
Cohen Brothers, LLC (d/b/a 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, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boston, Paris, London and Tokyo, Cohen & Company serves a diverse international network of institutional and individual clients.

Investors: Cohen & Company Inc. Joseph W. Pooler, Jr., 215-701-8952 Chief Financial Officer investorrelations@cohenandcompany.com

Media: Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher James Golden, 212-895-8665 jgolden@joelefrank.com