Ronald James DiPrete

Founded in 1988, Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP is a broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of Sandler O'Neill & Partners Corp. and their ultimate parent is SOP Holdings LLC. Sandler O'Neill & Partners' Equity Sales & Trading team seeks to enhance liquidity, execute complex transactions, distribute securities and provide institutional investor exposure for hundreds of financial institutions. Sandler O'Neill is a market maker for over 425 NASDAQ financial stocks and trades equities on all active exchanges including the NYSE, NASDAQ, OTC Bulletin Board and Pink Sheets. They work with CEOs, CFOs and management teams on corporate buybacks, portfolio valuations, rebalancings and liquidations. Sandler O'Neill publishes detailed equity research on approximately 270 financial services companies. They primarily cover small- and mid-sized companies that are not widely followed by large Wall Street firms. Their research coverage focuses on the following industries: (1) banks and thrifts (2) specialty finance and credit card companies (3) asset management (4) e-Finance (5) investment banking firms and broker/dealers (6) REITS (7) mortgage REITs and (8) insurance.