Griffin Expands Financial Services Group Platform
Richard Vader Joins as Senior Managing Director; Scott Abercrombie Joins Griffin Holdings
                                                       
King of Prussia, PA, October 6, 2008 – Griffin Financial Group announced today the expansion of its Financial Services Group with the addition of Richard A. Vader as Senior Managing Director, Financial Services Group.

In addition, Scott W. Abercrombie has joined Griffin Holdings Group, parent company of Griffin Financial, as Managing Director of Mortgage and Consumer Banking.

Richard Vader provides bank executives, directors, stockholders and investors with advice on issues of corporate strategy, tactics, organizational structure, performance and corporate actions. He provides independent, knowledgeable assessments of corporate valuation, profitability, leverage, capitalization and capital adequacy, and assists clients with their public securities offerings, private equity and debt placements, recapitalization, corporate defenses and their mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Vader has served as senior advisor in over 45 mergers and acquisitions and 25 securities offerings. He has more than 30 years of experience with banking-specific boutiques Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. and Alex Sheshunoff & Co., Inc.; major securities firms Kidder, Peabody & Co., Incorporated and The First Boston Corporation; regional retail broker Advest, Inc.; and the niche firm of Hugh L. McColl Partners LLC.  He was also the Corporate Finance Director of a multi-billion dollar community bank.

He earned his MBA and B.A. from Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey.

Scott Abercrombie brings significant experience to financial institution clients in his management of the mortgage and consumer banking operation for Griffin Holdings Group. Presently, he provides consultative and loan trading services in performing, scratch and dent, non-performing, REO residential first and second mortgages, auto and other consumer loans.

Mr. Abercrombie is the former Executive Vice President of Sovereign Finance Company and Alternative Deliveries for Sovereign Bank. While with Sovereign, he established Sovereign Finance Company, a national home equity and mortgage loan purchase business, and managed all aspects of Sovereign Finance Company, retail e-commerce, call centers and Sovereign Insurance Agency. Mr. Abercrombie also held executive positions in consumer and mortgage lending with Citibank, JPMorgan Chase of New Jersey and Berkeley Federal Savings Bank.

He holds an MBA in Finance from the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester, and a B.S. in mathematics from SUNY Brockport.

In addition to the expansion of the Financial Services Group, the firm has grown its Private Equity Group with the addition of Paul F. Delaney as Senior Managing Director and head of the private equity placement team. Mr. Delaney brings nearly 30 years of senior management experience, many of which were spent with Bear Stearns Private Funds Group and MetLife Inc., one of the largest institutional investors by allocation to alternative assets.

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ABOUT GRIFFIN FINANCIAL GROUP LLC
Griffin Financial Group provides merger and acquisition advisory, capital formation, strategic consulting and private equity placements and related services. Griffin also assists businesses in obtaining financing through private placements of debt and equity, including those businesses facing special situations, such as financial restructuring and turnarounds. Griffin is an SEC-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member. For more information see www.go2griffin.com.
Griffin is part of an integrated multidisciplinary professional services firm which, in addition to Griffin, consists of an AmLaw 200 law firm, an SEC-registered money manager, a D&O and E&O insurance risk consulting business, a swap and derivative advisory business and several other businesses.