UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K 

(Mark One)

☒    ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

OR

☐     TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from                      to                      

Commission file number: 001-32026

COHEN & COMPANY INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Maryland	16-1685692
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization)	(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
Cira Centre
2929 Arch Street,  Suite 1703 Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania	19104
(Address of principal executive offices)	(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (215) 701-9555 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share	COHN	NYSE AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒ 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒ 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐ 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files.   Yes   ☒    No   ☐ 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer	☐	Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer	☐	Smaller Reporting Company	☒
		Emerging Growth Company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  Yes  ☐    No  ☒ 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒ 

As of June 30, 2021, the aggregate market value of the Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant was approximately $21.5 million.  As of March 7, 2022, there were 1,718,135 shares of Common Stock of Cohen & Company Inc. outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the Proxy Statement for the Registrant’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K. 

COHEN & COMPANY INC. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

		Page
	PART I
Item 1.	Business.	5
Item 1A.	Risk Factors.	17
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments.	38
Item 2.	Properties.	38
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings.	38
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures.	38
	PART II
Item 5.	Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.	39
Item 6.	Selected Financial Data.	39
Item 7.	Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.	40
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.	78
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.	80
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.	80
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures.	80
Item 9B.	Other Information.	81
Item 9C.	Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections	81
	PART III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.	82
Item 11.	Executive Compensation.	82
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.	82
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.	82
Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services.	82
	PART IV
Item 15.	Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules.	83
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary.	88

1

Forward Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements discuss matters that are not historical facts. Because they discuss future events or conditions, forward-looking statements may include words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “may,” “seek,” “plan,” “might,” “will,” “expect,”  “predict,” “project,” “forecast,” “potential,” “continue,” negatives thereof or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, are based on various underlying assumptions and current expectations about the future and are not guarantees. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievement to be materially different from the results of operations or plans expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are found at various places throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K and include information concerning possible or assumed future results of our operations, including statements about the following subjects:

• integration of operations;

• business strategies;

• growth opportunities;

•  competitive position;

• market outlook;

•  expected financial position;

• expected results of operations;

• future cash flows;

• financing plans;

• plans and objectives of management;

•  tax treatment of the business combinations;

• the special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) of which we are a sponsor including, INSU Acquisition III, a blank check company that will seek to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses;

• our investments in both SPACs and SPAC sponsor entities, including through our SPAC Fund and SPAC Series Funds

• our role as asset manager and sponsor in our SPAC franchise

• fair value of assets; and

• any other statements regarding future growth, future cash needs, future operations, business plans, future financial results, and any other statements that are not historical facts.

These forward-looking statements represent our intentions, plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Many of those factors are outside of our control and could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the events described in the forward-looking statements might not occur or might occur to a different extent or at a different time than we have described. You should consider the areas of risk and uncertainty described above and discussed under “Item 1A — Risk Factors.” Actual results may differ materially as a result of various factors, some of which are outside our control, including the following:

•  a decline in general economic conditions or the global financial markets;

•  continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic or future outbreaks of COVID-19, the timing and effectiveness of vaccine distribution, and uncertainty surrounding the length and severity of future impacts on the global economy and on our business, liquidity, results of operations and financial condition;

•  economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine;

•  risks and liabilities due to our investments in the equity interests of SPACs and SPAC sponsor entities including the risk of increased regulation applicable to SPACs, risks regarding litigation in connection with the SPACs in which we invest and those which we sponsor, uncertainty of whether the SPACs in which we invest and those we sponsor will consummate a business combination, adverse impacts of COVID-19 on our SPAC franchise, significant competition for business opportunities in the SPAC industry, write-downs or write-offs with respect to the securities which we hold subsequent to the consummation of an initial business combination by the SPACs in which we invest and those which we sponsor, and the target of a SPAC being an early-stage and financially unstable company; 

• losses caused by financial or other problems experienced by third parties;

• losses due to unidentified or unanticipated risks;

• losses (whether realized or unrealized) on our principal investments;

•  a lack of liquidity, i.e., ready access to funds for use in our businesses, or the availability of financing at prohibitive rates;

• the ability to attract and retain personnel;

• the ability to meet regulatory capital requirements administered by federal agencies;

•  the ability to pay dividends;

•  an inability to generate incremental income from acquired, newly established, or expanded businesses;

•  unanticipated market closures due to inclement weather or other disasters;

• the volume of trading in securities including collateralized securities transactions;

•  the liquidity in capital markets;

•  the creditworthiness of our correspondents, trading counterparties, and banking and margin customers;

• changing interest rates and their impacts on U.S. residential mortgage volumes;

2

• competitive conditions in each of our business segments;

• the availability of borrowings under credit lines, credit agreements, warehouse agreements, and our credit facilities;

• the potential misconduct or errors by our employees or by entities with whom we conduct business; and

• the potential for litigation and other regulatory liability.

Our Internet website is www.cohenandcompany.com and we make available on our website our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including annual reports, quarterly reports, current reports and any amendments to those filings. The reference to our website address does not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained therein into this Form 10-K. We also use our website to disseminate other material information to our investors (on the Home Page and in the “Investor Relations” section of our website). We also post on our website our press releases and information about our public conference calls (including the scheduled dates, times and the methods by which investors and others can listen to those calls), and we make available for replay webcasts of those calls and other presentations for a limited time.

You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning other matters addressed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Except to the extent required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, a change in events, conditions, circumstances or assumptions underlying such statements, or otherwise.

3

Certain Terms Used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K 

In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless otherwise noted or as the context otherwise requires, the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Cohen & Company Inc. (formerly Institutional Financial Markets, Inc.), a Maryland corporation and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis; and “Cohen & Company, LLC” (formerly IFMI, LLC) or the “Operating LLC” refer to the main operating subsidiary of the Company. 

“Cohen Brothers” refers to the pre-merger Cohen Brothers, LLC and its subsidiaries; “AFN” refers to the pre-merger Alesco Financial Inc. and its subsidiaries; “AFN Merger” refers to the December 16, 2009 closing of the merger of AFN, Alesco Financial Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of AFN, with and into Cohen Brothers, which resulted in Cohen Brothers becoming a majority owned subsidiary of the Company.

“JVB Holdings” refers to JVB Financial Holdings, L.P., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Operating LLC; “JVB” refers to J.V.B. Financial Group, LLC, a wholly owned broker dealer subsidiary of JVB Holdings; “CCFL” refers to Cohen & Company Financial Limited (formerly known as EuroDekania Management LTD), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Operating LLC formerly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (formerly known as the Financial Services Authority) in the United Kingdom (the “FCA”); “CCFEL” refers to Cohen & Company Financial (Europe) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Operating LLC regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland ( the “CBI”); Cohen & Company Financial Europe Limited S.A. (“CCFESA”), a majority owned operating subsidiary of the Operating LLC regulated by the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution ("ACPR") ; and“EuroDekania” refers to EuroDekania (Cayman) Ltd., a Cayman Islands exempted company that was externally managed by CCFL.

 “Securities Act” refers to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended; and “Exchange Act” refers to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

4

PART I

ITEM  1.  BUSINESS.

INFORMATION REGARDING COHEN & COMPANY INC.

Overview

We are a financial services company specializing in the fixed income markets and, more recently, in special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC") markets. We were founded in 1999 as an investment firm focused on small-cap banking institutions but have grown to provide an expanding range of capital markets and asset management services. Our business segments are Capital Markets, Asset Management, and Principal Investing. Our Capital Markets business segment consists of fixed income sales, trading, and matched book repo financing as well as new issue placements in corporate and securitized products and advisory services, operating primarily through our subsidiaries, JVB in the United States (the “U.S.”) and CCFESA in Europe. Our Asset Management business segment manages assets through investment vehicles, such as collateralized debt obligations (“CDOs”), managed accounts, joint ventures, and investment funds (collectively, “Investment Vehicles”). As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $2.4 billion of assets under management (“AUM”) in primarily fixed income assets in a variety of asset classes including U.S. and European bank and insurance trust preferred securities (“TruPS”), debt issued by small and medium sized European, U.S., and Bermuda insurance and reinsurance companies, and equity interests of SPACs and their sponsor entities. A significant portion of our AUM, 52.6%, was in CDOs we manage, which were all securitized prior to 2008. The remaining portion of our AUM is from a diversified mix of other Investment Vehicles most of which were more recently formed.  Our Principal Investing business segment is comprised primarily of investments we hold related to our SPAC franchise and investments that we have made for the purpose of earning an investment return rather than investments made to support our trading, matched book repo, or other capital markets business activity.

Capital Markets

Our Capital Markets business segment consists primarily of fixed income sales, trading, and matched book repo financing as well as new issue placements in corporate and securitized products and advisory services operating primarily through our subsidiaries, JVB in the U.S. and CCFESA in Europe. JVB is our sole operating U.S. broker-dealer, under our JVB Holdings subsidiary, and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and the Securities Industry Protection Corporation (“SIPC”).  CCFESA is regulated by the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution ("ACPR").

Cohen & Company Capital Markets, a division of JVB, is our full-service boutique investment banking platform focusing on SPAC advisory, capital markets advisory, and M&A advisory, with clients primarily in the financial technology (commonly referred to as "fintech") and SPAC spaces. During 2021, Cohen & Company Capital Markets hired 16 professionals with substantial industry experience to build a leading boutique capital markets advisory team.

In 2021, we created a commercial real estate lending platform (“CRE Opportunities”), which operates outside of JVB, primarily focused on multi-family transitional loans. During 2021, we hired eight professionals with extensive origination, underwriting, and securitization experience in the commercial real estate market.

Our fixed income sales and trading group provides trade execution to corporate investors, institutional investors, mortgage originators, and other smaller broker-dealers. We specialize in a variety of products, including but not limited to: corporate bonds and loans, asset-backed securities (“ABS”), mortgage backed securities (“MBS”), commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”), residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”), CDOs, collateralized loan obligations (“CLOs”), collateralized bond obligations (“CBOs”), collateralized mortgage obligations (“CMOs”), municipal securities, to-be-announced securities (“TBAs”) and other forward agency MBS contracts, U.S. government bonds, U.S. government agency securities, brokered deposits and certificates of deposit (“CDs”) for small banks, and hybrid capital of financial institutions including TruPS, whole loans, and other structured financial instruments.

In 2012, we established a trading desk for “to-be-announced” securities, or TBAs, as part of our mortgage group. TBAs are forward mortgage-backed securities whose exact collateral remains unknown until just prior to the trade settlement, although the characteristics of the collateral are known. The forward collateral types are exclusively issued by U.S. government agencies, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), and the Government National Mortgage Association (“Ginnie Mae”). One objective of our mortgage group is to provide capital markets execution services to small and middle market institutional mortgage originators that hedge their mortgage pipelines. In addition to providing credit for MBS trading lines and execution services, our mortgage group offers trading of specified pools and financing for qualified originators. Our mortgage group offers a range of solutions for institutional clients seeking to enhance their mortgage pipeline execution and overall portfolio profitability. In addition, our mortgage group acts as an intermediary between borrowers and lenders of short-term funds and provides funding for various inventory positions using repurchase agreements.

We have grown our matched book repo business, under which JVB enters into repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements. In general, JVB lends money to a counterparty after obtaining collateral securities from that counterparty via a reverse repurchase agreement. JVB also borrows money from another counterparty using those same collateral securities via a repurchase agreement. JVB seeks to earn net interest income on these transactions. For several years, JVB has operated a matched book gestation repo program. Gestation repo involves entering into repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements where the underlying collateral security represents a pool of newly issued mortgage loans. The borrowers ( i.e. the reverse repurchase agreement counterparties) are generally mortgage originators. The lenders (i.e. the repurchase agreement counterparties) are a diverse group of counterparties comprised of banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions. From 2017 through 2021, we also operated a matched book general collateral funding (“GCF”) repo business as a full netting member of the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation’s (“FICC”) Government Services Division. Primarily due to reduced spreads in the repo market for GCF collateral, we exited the GCF business in 2021. 

We have been in the Capital Markets business since our inception. Our Capital Markets business segment has transformed over time in response to market opportunities and the needs of our clients. The initial focus was on sales and trading of listed equities of small financial companies with a particular emphasis on bank stocks. Early on, a market opportunity arose for participation in a particular segment of the debt market, the securitization of TruPS. We began assisting small banks in the issuance of TruPS through CDOs. These Investment Vehicles were structured and underwritten by large investment banks while our broker-dealer typically participated as a co-placement agent or selling group member. We also participated in the secondary market trading between institutional clients of the securities issued by these CDOs.

In early 2008, our management team made the strategic decision to restructure our Capital Markets business model from exclusively focusing on TruPS and structured credit products to a more traditional fixed income broker-dealer platform with more diversified revenue streams primarily from trading activity. In the ensuing years, we hired many sales and trading professionals with expertise in areas that complement our core competency in structured credit. In 2011, our acquisitions of JVB and the PrinceRidge Group (“PrinceRidge”) further expanded our Capital Markets platform. As a result of these acquisitions, offset by subsequent downsizings and mergers, our Capital Markets staffing increased from six sales and trading professionals at the beginning of 2008, to over 230 professionals in mid-2011, and decreased to 72 professionals as of December 31, 2021. We continue to explore opportunities to add complementary distribution channels, hire experienced talent, expand our presence across asset classes, and bolster the service capabilities of our Capital Markets business segment.

5

Our Capital Markets business segment generates revenue through the following activities: (1) trading activities, which include execution and brokerage services, matched book repo, riskless trading activities as well as gains and losses (unrealized and realized), and income and expense earned on securities classified as trading, and (2) new issue and advisory revenue comprised of (a) origination fees for newly created financial instruments originated by us, (b) revenue from advisory services, and (c) new issue revenue associated with arranging and placing the issuance of newly created financial instruments. Our Capital Markets business segment has offices in Boca Raton (Florida), Cold Spring Harbor (New York), Hunt Valley (Maryland), Menlo Park (California), New York City (New York), Paris (France), and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania).

Trades in our Capital Markets business segment can be either “riskless” or risk based. “Riskless trades” are transacted with a customer order in hand, resulting in limited risk to us. “Risk-based trades” involve us owning the securities and thus placing our capital at risk. Such risk-based trading activity may include the use of leverage. In recent years, we began to utilize more leverage in our Capital Markets business segment. We believe that the prudent use of capital to facilitate client orders increases trading volume and profitability. Any gains or losses on trading securities that we have classified as investments-trading are recorded in our Capital Markets business segment, whereas any gains or losses on securities that we classified as other investments, at fair value are recorded in our Principal Investing business segment. 

6

Asset Management

Our Asset Management business segment manages assets within a variety of Investment Vehicles. We earn management fees for our ongoing asset management services provided to these Investment Vehicles, which may include fees both senior and subordinate to the securities issued by the Investment Vehicles. Management fees are based on the value of the AUM or the investment performance of the vehicle, or both. As of December 31, 2021, we had $2.4 billion in AUM, of which 52.6% was in CDOs we manage. AUM equals the sum of: (1) the gross assets included in the CDOs that we have sponsored and/or manage; plus (2) the net asset value (“NAV”) or gross assets of the Other Investment Vehicles we manage based on whichever measurement serves as the basis for the calculation of our management fees. Our calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers and, as a result, this measure may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other asset managers. This definition of AUM is not necessarily identical to any definition of AUM that may be used in our management agreements.  We do not receive management fees for assets managed within our SPAC Series Funds as well as our CREO JV prior to completing a securitization.  See discussion below.  

Currently, a significant portion of our AUM is in CDOs that we manage. A CDO is a form of secured borrowing. The borrowing is secured by different types of fixed income assets such as corporate or mortgage loans or bonds. The borrowing is in the form of a securitization, which means that the lenders are actually investing in notes secured by the assets. In the event of a default, the lender will have recourse only to the assets securing the loan. We have originated assets for, served as co-placement agent for, and continue to manage this type of Investment Vehicle, which is generally structured as a trust or other special purpose vehicle. In addition, we invested in some of the debt and equity securities initially issued by certain CDOs, gains and losses of which were recorded in our Principal Investing business segment.

These structures can hold different types of securities. Historically, we focused on the following asset classes: (1) U.S. and European bank and insurance TruPS and subordinated debt; (2) U.S. ABS, such as MBS and commercial real estate loans; (3) U.S. and European corporate loans; and (4) U.S. obligations of non-profit entities. As of December 31, 2021, our only remaining CDOs under management were backed by U.S. and European bank and insurance TruPS and subordinated debt.

The credit crisis starting in 2008 caused available liquidity, particularly through CDOs and other types of securitizations, to decline precipitously. Our ability to accumulate assets for securitization effectively ended with the market disruption. We securitized $14.8 billion of assets in 16 trusts during 2006, $17.8 billion of assets in 16 trusts during 2007, $400 million of assets in one trust during 2008, and zero assets in zero trusts since 2009. 

We generate asset management revenue for our services as an asset manager. Many of our sponsored CDOs, particularly those where the assets are bank TruPS and ABS, have experienced asset deferrals, defaults, and rating agency downgrades that reduce our management fees. In addition, many of the CDOs we manage have experienced high enough levels of deferrals, defaults, and downgrades to reduce our ongoing subordinated management fees to zero. In a typical structure, any failure of a covenant coverage test redirects cash flow to pay down the senior debt until compliance is restored. If compliance is eventually restored, the entity will resume paying subordinated management fees to us, including those that were accrued but remained unpaid during the period of non-compliance.

As of December 31, 2021, we had two subsidiaries that act as collateral managers and investment advisors to the CDOs that we manage. These entities are registered investment advisors under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Investment Advisers Act”).  

Subsidiary	Product Line	Asset Class
Cohen & Company Financial Management, LLC (“CCFM”)	Alesco	Bank and insurance TruPS, subordinated debt of primarily U.S. companies
Dekania Capital Management, LLC (“DCM”)	Dekania Europe	Bank and insurance TruPS, subordinated debt of primarily European companies

 The table below shows changes in our AUM by product line for the last five years.

ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT

(Dollars in Millions)

	As of December 31,
	2021		2020		2019		2018		2017
Alesco	$	1,099	$	1,890	$	2,044	$	2,112	$	2,469
Dekania Europe		141		167		153		171		402
Munda		-		-		-		103		246
Total CDO AUM		1,240		2,057		2,197		2,386		3,117
Other Investment Vehicles		1,118		712		560		466		375
Total AUM	$	2,358	$	2,769	$	2,757	$	2,852	$	3,492

7

A description of our CDO product lines that were under management as of December 31, 2021 is set forth below.

Alesco and Dekania. As of December 31, 2021, we managed six Alesco deals and two Dekania Europe deals, which were initially securitized during 2003 to 2007. CCFM manages our Alesco platform. DCM manages our Dekania Europe platform. During 2014, we entered into a sub-advisory agreement to employ Mead Park Advisors, LLC to render advice and assistance with respect to collateral management services to the Alesco portfolios. On March 30, 2017, the sub-advisory agreement with Mead Park Advisors, LLC was terminated, and we entered into a sub-advisory agreement with another unrelated third-party provider effective March 30, 2017. 

In general, our Alesco and Dekania Europe deals have the following terms. We receive senior and subordinate management fees, and there is a potential for incentive fees on certain deals if equity internal rates of return are greater than 15%. We can be removed as manager without cause if 66.7% of the rated note holders voting separately by class and 66.7% of the equity holders vote to remove us, or if 75% of the most senior note holders vote to remove us when certain over-collateralization ratios fall below 100%. We can be removed as manager for cause if a majority of the controlling class of note holders or a majority of equity holders vote to remove us. “Cause” includes unremedied violations of the collateral management agreement or indenture, defaults attributable to certain actions of the manager, misrepresentations or fraud, criminal activity, bankruptcy, insolvency or dissolution. There was a non-call period for the equity holders, which ranged from three to six years. Once this non-call period expires, a majority of the equity holders can trigger an optional redemption as long as the liquidation of the collateral generates sufficient proceeds to pay all principal and accrued interest on the rated notes and all expenses. In ten years after the closing, an auction call will be triggered if the rated notes have not been redeemed in full. In an auction call redemption, an appointee will conduct an auction of the collateral, which will only be executed if the highest bid results in sufficient proceeds to pay all principal and accrued interest on the rated notes and all expenses. If the auction is not successfully completed, all residual interest that would normally be distributed to equity holders will be sequentially applied to reduce the principal of the rated notes. Any failure of an over-collateralization coverage test redirects interest to paying down notes until compliance is restored. The securities mature up to 30 years from closing. An event of default will occur if certain over-collateralization ratios drop below 100%. While an event of default exists, a majority of the senior note holders can declare the principal and accrued and unpaid interest immediately due and payable.  All of the Alesco and Dekania Europe CDOs that we manage have reached their auction call redemption features, which means the portfolio of collateral for each CDO is subject to an auction on either a quarterly or bi-annual basis. If an auction is successful, the management contract related to such CDO will be terminated in connection with the liquidation of the CDO and we will lose the related management fees. 

A description of our other Investment Vehicles that were under management as of December 31, 2021 is set forth below.

CREO JV. In September 2021, we committed to invest up to $15.0 million of equity into a newly formed joint venture (the “CREO JV”) with an outside investor who committed to invest approximately $435.0 million of equity into the CREO JV. We are required to invest 7.5% of the total equity of the CREO JV with an absolute limit of $15.0 million. As of December 31, 2021, the NAV of the CREO JV was $77.7 million, and we had invested $5.8 million of our $15.0 million investment commitment. The CREO JV is managed by us. The CREO JV was formed for the purposes of investing in primarily multi-family commercial real estate mortgage-backed loans and below-investment-grade rated tranches in CRE CLOs collateralized by mostly transitional commercial real estate mortgage-backed loans. “CRE CLO” means any pooling of commercial real estate mortgage-backed loans into a collateralized loan obligation. The commercial real estate loans that are funded by the CREO JV may be originated by us and we may earn origination fees in connection with such transactions. In addition, we may earn structuring fees in connection with structuring and consummating a CRE CLO consisting of a pooling of commercial real estate loans. Any origination fees or structuring fees earned by us will be in our Capital Markets segment. We will also earn management fees as manager of any CRE CLOs based on the value of the assets consolidated into a CRE CLO (calculated in accordance with the terms of such CRE CLO), payable from the proceeds generated by and in accordance with the distribution waterfall of such CRE CLO. The CREO JV has a repurchase facility to finance its assets until they can be securitized into CRE CLOs.  Through December 31, 2021, we have not yet structured and consummated a CRE CLO, thus no management fees as manager have been earned yet.  

PriDe Funds. In July 2014, we, initially through CCFL, then CCFEL, and now through CCFESA, became the investment advisor of a newly created French investment fund with total commitments of €238 million, and an initial investment period of two years (which was later extended by two years) and a maturity date of July 2026 (which was later extended until July 2028).  In January 2017, the second vintage funds in the series of these funds closed with total commitments of €203.5 million, and an initial investment period of three years (which was later extended by two years) and a maturity date of January 2032. In July 2020, the third vintage funds in the series of these funds closed with total commitments of €375.5 million, and an initial investment period of three years and a maturity date of July 2033. This series of funds is referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as the “PriDe Funds.” The PriDe Funds earn investment returns by investing in a diversified portfolio of debt securities issued by small and medium sized European insurance companies that have limited access to capital markets. CCFESA earns investment advisor regular fees and investment advisor performance fees depending on the level of returns achieved. We have not made an investment, nor do we expect to make any investment, in the PriDe Funds. AUM of the PriDe Funds was $686.5 million at December 31, 2021. 

U.S. Insurance JV. In May 2018, we committed to invest up to $3.0 million in a newly formed joint venture (the “U.S. Insurance JV”) with an outside investor who committed to invest approximately $63.0 million of equity in the U.S. Insurance JV.  The U.S. Insurance JV was formed for the purposes of investing in debt issued by small and medium sized U.S. and Bermuda insurance and reinsurance companies and is managed by DCM. We were required to invest 4.5% of the total equity of the U.S. Insurance JV with an absolute limit of $3.0 million. The U.S. Insurance JV has a $250 million credit agreement for leverage to grow its assets. As of December 31, 2021, the NAV of the U.S. Insurance JV was $127.0 million, and we had fulfilled our investment commitment. In addition, the insurance company debt that will be funded by the U.S. Insurance JV may be originated by us and there may be origination fees earned in connection with such transactions. We will also earn management fees as manager of the U.S. Insurance JV.  We are entitled to a quarterly base management fee, an annual incentive fee (if certain return hurdles are met), and an additional incentive fee upon the liquidation of the portfolio (if certain return hurdles are met).

SPAC Fund. In 2018, we invested in and became the investment manager and general partner of a newly formed Delaware limited partnership and the investment manager for a Cayman Islands exempted company that are feeder funds into a separate Cayman Islands exempted company that serves as the primary investment vehicle (the “SPAC Fund”).  The SPAC Fund was created for the purpose of investing primarily in the equity interests of SPACs and, in certain circumstances, SPAC sponsor entities including SPACs sponsored by us, our affiliates, and third parties. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the SPAC Fund was valued at $2.0 million. CCFM is the manager of the SPAC Fund and is entitled to a quarterly base management fee based on a percentage of the NAV of the SPAC Fund and the general partner of the SPAC fund is entitled to an annual incentive allocation based on the actual returns earned by the general partner of the SPAC Fund. We consolidate the general partner of the SPAC Fund and own 1/3 of the equity of the general partner of the SPAC Fund.  As of December 31, 2021, the NAV of the SPAC Fund was $125.4 million.

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SPAC Series Funds. As a complement to the SPAC Fund, we established and became the managing member and investment manager to two newly formed umbrella limited liability companies (the “SPAC Series Funds”) that issue a separate series for each investment portfolio, which typically consists of investments in the sponsor entities of individual SPACs. The investing activity of the SPAC Series Funds includes purchasing interests in the placement units of certain SPAC sponsor entities that, in addition to placement units, entitle the SPAC Series Funds to certain amounts of founder shares, for a nominal purchase price. The number of founder shares allocated to the SPAC Series Funds are not finally determined until the related business combination (if any) is completed by the applicable SPAC. The amount of founder shares allocable to each SPAC Series Fund is subject to change for two main reasons. First, if a business combination is not completed by the applicable SPAC within the allowed time frame, the SPAC Series Funds will forfeit all the founder shares allocated to them for that particular SPAC. Second, even if a business combination by the applicable SPAC is completed, the economic terms of the combination are subject to negotiation between the target company and that SPAC. In many cases, the total amount of founder shares to which the sponsor entities are entitled will be reduced as part of these negotiations. In these cases, any allocation to the SPAC Series Funds will also be reduced. Although we do not charge a management fee for most of the SPAC Series Funds, nor do we earn a performance fee from most of the SPAC Series Funds, we and certain of our employees receive a portion of the allocations of founder shares, for a nominal purchase price, from the SPAC sponsor entities in which the SPAC Series Funds invest. As of December 31, 2021, the SPAC Series Funds had issued limited liability company interests and invested in 43 SPAC sponsor entities, with an aggregated total net asset carrying value of $129.9 million. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the SPAC Series Funds was carried at $5.4 million. As of December 31, 2021, in our capacity as the asset manager of the SPAC Series Funds, we have received a current allocation of a total 12.4 million founder shares, for a nominal purchase price, from 36 different SPAC sponsor entities. These allocations will be worthless if the underlying SPACs fail to complete their business combination and liquidate. Furthermore, even if a business combination is completed, the founder shares allocable to us may be adjusted significantly downward based on final negotiation with the business combination counterparty. See below description of our Principal Investments as of December 31, 2021.

Managed Accounts. We provide investment management services to a number of separately managed accounts. Part of our European CDO team has transitioned to providing investment management or advisory services primarily to European family offices, high net worth individuals, and asset managers. The investment focus is on CDO and CLO notes and debt instruments where the investment managers have relevant expertise. For these services, we are paid gross annual base management or advisory fees of approximately 1.5% plus a gross annual performance fee of 20% of cash-on-cash returns in excess of an 8% hurdle. There is also an early redemption fee if any of the clients were to terminate their arrangement within the first five years of the relationship. AUM of these European managed accounts was $34.8 million as of December 31, 2021.

In addition, we have historically received revenue shares from certain asset management businesses that we initially sponsored or owned, and subsequently sold or spun-off. A description of our only remaining asset management revenue share as of December 31, 2021 is set forth below.

Infrastructure Finance Business. On March 12, 2012, we entered into an agreement with unrelated third parties whereby we agreed to assist in the establishment of an international infrastructure finance business (“IIFC”). As consideration for our assistance in establishing IIFC, we received 8.0% of certain revenues of the manager of IIFC through October 31, 2021, and effective November 1, 2021, we receive 7.35% of certain revenues of the manager of IIFC. The IIFC revenue share arrangement expires when we have earned a cumulative $20 million in revenue share payments or with the dissolution of IIFC’s management company.  Also, in any particular year, the revenue share earned by us cannot exceed $2.0 million.  In 2021, we earned $0.6 million from the IIFC revenue share.  From inception through 2021, we have earned $3.8 million. See note 22 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 

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Principal Investing

Our Principal Investing business segment has historically been comprised of investments in the Investment Vehicles we manage, as well as investments in certain other structured products, and the related gains and losses that they generate. In 2014, we refocused our Principal Investing portfolio on products that we do not manage for the purpose of earning an investment return. More recently, capitalizing on our SPAC expertise, we have become active in multiple aspects of the SPAC market, including as a sponsor, asset manager, and investor, and as a result we hold various investments related to our SPAC franchise.  

A SPAC is a shell corporation formed for the sole purpose of raising investment capital through an initial public offering (“IPO”), which is then used to acquire or merge with one or more unspecified businesses to be identified after the IPO. SPACs are formed and sponsored by experienced business executives who are confident that their reputation and experience will help them identify a profitable company to acquire or with which to merge. The sponsors of the applicable SPAC generally provide the starting capital for that SPAC and such sponsors stand to benefit from a sizeable stake in the post business combination acquired or merged company (assuming a business combination is consummated by the SPAC which they sponsor). The capital raised in the SPAC's IPO is placed in an interest-bearing trust account and cannot be disbursed except to complete a business combination or to return the money to investors (if the SPAC does not complete a business combination within the required time period and must be liquidated.) A SPAC generally has approximately two years to complete a deal. In return for the capital invested by investors in the SPAC IPO, investors typically receive units in the SPAC, with each unit often comprising a share of common stock and a warrant (or fraction thereof) to purchase more stock at a later date. The purchase price per unit of the securities is typically $10.00. After a SPAC's IPO, the pre-IPO units of the SPAC become separable into shares of common stock and warrants. The purpose of the warrant is to provide investors with additional compensation for investing in the SPAC. The warrants generally become exercisable either 30 days after the completion of a business combination or twelve months after the IPO. The fair market value of the target company must be at least 80% (but generally much more) of the SPAC’s trust assets. Upon successful completion of a business combination, the sponsors will profit from their stake in the post-business combination acquired or merged company, while the investors receive an equity interest according to their respective investment amounts The founders of the SPAC generally purchase founder shares at the initiation of the SPAC, paying nominal consideration for the number of shares that, based on recent transactions, results in or around a 20% to 25% ownership stake in the outstanding shares after the completion of the IPO.

Since 2018, we have sponsored three SPACs. Our first sponsored SPAC, Insurance Acquisition Corp. (“Insurance SPAC”), completed its $150.7 million IPO in March 2019, entered into a merger agreement in June 2020, and completed its business combination in October 2020 with Shift Technologies, Inc. (“Shift”), a car-buying e-commerce platform. When the merger closed on October 13, 2020, Insurance SPAC changed its name to "Shift Technologies, Inc." and, on October 15, 2020, its trading symbol on the NASDAQ Capital Market (“NASDAQ”) changed from "INSU" to "SFT."  Our second sponsored SPAC, INSU Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ: INAQ) (“Insurance SPAC II”), completed its $250 million IPO in September 2020 and entered into a merger agreement in November 2020 with Metromile, Inc., a digital insurance platform and pay-by-mile auto insurer ("MetroMile"), which closed on February 9, 2021. When the merger closed, Insurance SPAC II changed its name to Metromile, Inc. and on February 10, 2021, its trading symbol on the NASDAQ changed from "INAQ" to "MILE."  Our third sponsored SPAC, INSU Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ: IIII) (“Insurance SPAC III”), completed its $218 million IPO in December 2020 and is currently seeking to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses that provides insurance or insurance related services but is not required to complete a business combination with an insurance business. See note 4 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Subject to changes in the overall SPAC market which are evolving rapidly, we anticipate continuing to grow our SPAC franchise and capitalizing on opportunities in the space. In addition to our sponsored SPACs, we receive founder shares and purchase placement units and IPO units in various SPACs sponsored by third parties and affiliates, through our SPAC Fund, our SPAC Series Funds, and our Principal Investing portfolio.  The amount of founder shares allocated to us are not finally determined until the related business combination is completed. The amount of founder shares allocable to us are subject to change for two main reasons. First, if a business combination is not completed by the applicable SPAC within the allowed time frame, we will forfeit all the founder shares allocated to us for that particular SPAC. Second, even if a business combination is completed by the applicable SPAC, the economic terms of the combination are subject to negotiation between the target company and that SPAC. In many cases, the total amount of founder shares to which the sponsor entities are entitled to will be reduced as part of these negotiations. In these cases, any allocation of founder shares to the us will also be reduced. 

We also invest in SPAC sponsor entities that we do not consolidate because we are not the managing member of such sponsor entity or otherwise do not have the power to direct the sponsor entity's most important activities. In these cases, we treat our investment in the SPAC sponsor entity as an equity method investment. Furthermore, because of the difficulty of determining the fair value of such an investment during the applicable SPAC's pre-business combination period, we generally have not elected fair value option. If a SPAC completes a business combination and we have an equity method investment in the associated sponsor entity, the sponsor entity will record income equal to the difference between the fair value of the restricted and unrestricted shares it receives and the carrying value of its equity method investment in the SPAC. We will recognize our share of this gain as income from equity method affiliates. The sponsor entity will continue to mark its investment in the SPAC to market after the business combination and we will recognize our share of the change in fair value as income or loss from equity method affiliates. Once the sponsor entity distributes to us our share of the SPAC shares it owns, we will reclassify our investment from investment in equity method affiliate to other investments, at fair value as we will then hold the SPAC shares directly (rather than through an equity method investee). We will then record principal transactions income and loss until the SPAC shares themselves are liquidated.

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As of December 31, 2021, our Principal Investing portfolio included other investments, at fair value, which were valued at $53.5 million, and investments in equity method affiliates, which were carried at $48.2 million. A description of our Principal Investments as of December 31, 2021 is set forth below. 

(Dollars in millions.)

			Other Investments,		Investments in Equity
Investment		Ticker	at fair value		Method Affiliates
Sponsored SPACs:
Post-Business Combination
	Shift Technologies, Inc.	SFT	$	5.8	$	-
	Metromile, Inc.	MILE		5.5		-
				11.3		-
Pre-Business Combination
	Insurance SPAC III	IIII		-		4.5
Non-Sponsored SPACs:
Post-Business Combination
	Payoneer Inc.	PAYO		2.3		-
	Parella Weinberg Partners	PWP		-		1.1
	REE Automotive	REE		5.2		-
	Archer Aviation Inc.	ACHR		-		0.7
	Wejo Group Ltd.	WEJO		6.8		2.0
	Heliogen, Inc.	HLGN		-		28.4
	Other			1.3		-
				15.6		32.2
Pre-Business Combination
	Various			13.5		0.5
Other Investments:
	CREO JV			5.8		-
	US Insurance JV			3.4		-
	Dutch Real Estate			-		5.6
	SPAC Funds			2.0		-
	SPAC Series Funds			-		5.4
	Other Investments			1.9		-
				13.1		11.0
Total Principal Investing Portfolio			$	53.5	$	48.2

Investment in Sponsored SPACs, Post-Business Combination. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the post-business combination public equities of Shift and Metromile was valued at $11.3 million, which was included as a component of other investments, at fair value in our consolidated balance sheet. Our investment in Shift is the result of our sponsorship of Insurance SPAC and our investment in Metromile is the result of our sponsorship of Insurance SPAC II. Certain of the shares are subject to restrictions on transfer until certain threshold trading prices are met. See notes 4 and 9 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Investment in Sponsored SPACs, Pre-Business Combination. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in Insurance SPAC III public equity was carried at $4.5 million, which was included as a component of investment in equity method affiliates in our consolidated balance sheet. Partially offsetting this amount was non-controlling interest of $4.8 million, which was included as a component of non-controlling interest in our consolidated balance sheet. Therefore, the net carrying value of our investment in Insurance SPAC III was negative $0.3 million as of December 31, 2021. Our investment in Insurance SPAC III is the result of our sponsorship of INSU Acquisition Corp. III. If Insurance SPAC III closes a business combination, certain of the shares that we will be entitled to receive will be subject to restrictions on transfer until threshold trading prices are met. See notes 4 and 9 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Investment in Non-Sponsored SPACs, Post-Business Combination. An investment in non-sponsored SPACs, post-business combination is classified as other investments, at fair value after we receive our allocation of the post-business combination publicly traded company shares. During the period between a closing of the business combination and receiving our allocation of shares in the post-business combination publicly traded company, an investment in non-sponsored SPACs, post-business combination is classified as an investment in equity method affiliates, representing an investment in the sponsor of the SPAC, entitling us to an eventual allocation of post-business combination public company shares. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the public equity of non-sponsored SPACs, post-business combination was valued at $15.6 million as a component of other investments, at fair value, partially offset by non-controlling interests of $6.5 million, resulting in a net carrying value of $9.1 million. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the sponsors entitling us to public equity of non-sponsored SPACs, post-business combination had a carrying value of $32.2 million as a component of investment in equity method affiliates, partially offset by non-controlling interests of $18.6 million, resulting in a net carrying value of $13.6 million. These investments are primarily a result of allocations of founder shares to us and certain of our employees, for a nominal purchase price, from the SPAC sponsor entities in which the SPAC Series Funds invest. Certain of the shares are subject to restrictions on transfer until threshold trading prices are met. See notes 4 and 9 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 

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Investment in Non-Sponsored SPACs, Pre-Business Combination. An investment in non-sponsored SPACs, pre-business combination is classified as other investments, at fair value if we purchase shares of publicly traded SPACs directly in the open market. An investment in non-sponsored SPACs, pre-business combination is classified as an investment in equity method affiliates if the investment is in the sponsor of a SPAC and entitles us to an eventual allocation of public company shares from a SPAC sponsor, if a SPAC successfully completes a business combination. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the public equity of non-sponsored SPACs, pre-business combination was valued at $13.5 million as a component of other investments, at fair value, which represents investment in the public equity of nine non-sponsored SPACs, pre-business combination. Three of these equity positions, valued at an aggregate $9.8 million, are in SPACs sponsored by related parties – see notes 4 and 31 to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. All nine of these publicly traded SPACs have completed an IPO but have not yet consummated a business combination, and only two have signed a merger agreement with a potential business combination target. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the sponsors entitling us to public equity of non-sponsored SPACs, pre-business combination had a carrying value at $0.5 million as a component of investment in equity method affiliates, partially offset by non-controlling interests of $0.1 million, resulting in a net carrying value of $0.4 million. We expect to continue to invest additional capital in non-sponsored SPAC equity, directly and through sponsors, as opportunities arise.

Investment in CREO JV. In September 2021, we co-established and committed to invest up to $15.0 million in CREO JV. As of December 31, 2021, we had invested $5.8 million of our $15.0 million investment commitment. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in CREO JV was valued at $5.8 million, which was included as a component of other investments, at fair value in our consolidated balance sheet, and the NAV of the CREO JV was $77.7 million.

Investment in U.S. Insurance JV. During 2018, we co-established and committed to invest up to $3.0 million in the U.S. Insurance JV. As of December 31, 2021, we had fulfilled our investment commitment, our investment in the U.S. Insurance JV was valued at $3.4 million, which was included as a component of other investments, at fair value in our consolidated balance sheet, and the NAV of the U.S. Insurance JV was $127.0 million.

Investment in Dutch Real Estate. In December 2019, we acquired a 45% interest in CK Capital Partners B.V. (“CK Capital”), a private company incorporated in the Netherlands, which provides asset and investment advisory services relating to real estate holdings, as well as a 10% interest in a related real estate holding company. In December 2021, we invested an additional $2.4 million in the related real estate holding company. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in these Dutch Real Estate entities was carried at $5.6 million, $0.4 million in CK Capital and $5.2 million in the real estate holding company, which was included as a component of investment in equity method affiliates in our consolidated balance sheet.

Investment in the SPAC Fund. In August 2018, we established and invested $0.6 million in the SPAC Fund. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the SPAC Fund was valued at $2.0 million, which was included as a component of other investments, at fair value in our consolidated balance sheet, and the NAV of the SPAC Fund was $125.4 million.

Investment in the SPAC Series Funds. In 2020, as a complement to the SPAC Fund, we established and became the managing member and investment manager to the SPAC Series Funds that issue a separate series for each investment portfolio, which typically consists of investments in the sponsor entities of individual SPACs. As of December 31, 2021, our investment in the SPAC Series Funds was carried at $5.4 million, which was included as a component of investment in equity method affiliates in our consolidated balance sheet. We expect to continue to invest additional capital in the SPAC Series Funds as opportunities arise.

Investment in Other Securities. We have invested in various original issuance securities that we have originated and certain other securities that we have not originated. As of December 31, 2021, our investments in these other securities were valued at $1.9 million, which included private equity, public equity, and real estate loans.

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Employees 

 As of December 31, 2021, we employed a total of 118 full time professionals and support staff. This number includes 64 employees of our JVB subsidiary, 8 employees of our CRE Opportunities group, 11 employees of our Principal Investing business segment, 14 employees of our U.S. Asset Management business segment, 6 employees of our European Asset Management business segment, 14 employees of our U.S. support services group, and 1 employee of our European support services group. We consider our employee relations to be good and believe that our compensation and employee benefits are competitive with those offered by other financial services firms that we compete with for personnel. None of our employees is subject to any collective bargaining agreements. Our core asset is our professionals, their intellectual capital, and their dedication to providing the highest quality services to our clients. Prior to joining us, members of our management team held positions with other leading financial services firms, accounting firms, law firms, investment firms, or other public companies. Lester R. Brafman, Daniel G. Cohen, and Joseph W. Pooler, Jr. are our executive operating officers, and biographical information relating to each of these officers is incorporated by reference in “Part III — Item 10 — Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance” to the Company’s Proxy Statement, to be filed in connection with the Company’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

Competition

All areas of our business are intensely competitive, and we expect them to remain so. We believe that the principal factors affecting competition in our business include economic environment, quality and price of our products and services, client relationships, reputation, market focus, and the ability of our professionals.

Our competitors are other public and private asset managers, investment banks, brokerage firms, merchant banks, and financial advisory firms. We compete globally and on a regional, product and niche basis. Many of our competitors have substantially greater capital and resources than we do and offer a broader range of financial products and services. Certain of these competitors continue to raise additional amounts of capital to pursue business strategies that may be similar to ours. Some of these competitors may also have access to liquidity sources that are not available to us, which may pose challenges for us with respect to investment opportunities. In addition, some of these competitors may have higher risk tolerances or make different risk assessments than we do, allowing them to consider a wider variety of investments and establish broader business relationships.

In recent years, there has been substantial consolidation and convergence among companies in the financial services industry, including among many of our former competitors. In particular, a number of large commercial banks have established or acquired broker-dealers or have merged with other financial institutions. Many of these firms have the ability to offer a wider range of products than we offer, including loans, deposit taking, and insurance. Many of these firms also offer more comprehensive investment banking services, which may enhance their competitive position. They also have the ability to support investment banking and securities products with commercial banking and other financial services revenue in an effort to gain market share, which could result in pricing pressure in our business. This trend toward consolidation and convergence has significantly increased the capital base and geographic reach of our competitors.

Competition is intense for the recruitment and retention of experienced and qualified professionals. The success of our business and our ability to continue to compete effectively will depend significantly upon our continued ability to retain and motivate our existing professionals and attract new professionals. See “Item 1A — Risk Factors."

Regulation 

Certain of our subsidiaries, in the ordinary course of their business, are subject to extensive regulation by government and self-regulatory organizations both in the U.S. and abroad. As a matter of public policy, these regulatory bodies are responsible for safeguarding the integrity of the securities and other financial markets. The regulations promulgated by these regulatory bodies are designed primarily to protect the interests of the investing public generally and thus cannot be expected to protect or further the interests of our company or our stockholders and may have the effect of limiting or curtailing our activities, including activities that might be profitable.

As of December 31, 2021, our regulated subsidiaries include: JVB, a registered broker-dealer regulated by FINRA and subject to oversight by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”); CCFESA, a French company regulated by the ACPR; CCFEL, an Irish company regulated by the CBI; and CCFM and DCM, each of which is a registered investment adviser regulated by the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act. Since our inception, our businesses have been operated within a legal and regulatory framework that is constantly developing and changing, requiring us to be able to monitor and comply with a broad range of legal and regulatory developments that affect our activities.

Certain of our businesses are also subject to compliance with laws and regulations of U.S. federal and state governments, foreign governments, their respective agencies and/or various self-regulatory organizations or exchanges relating to, among other things, the privacy of client information and any failure to comply with these regulations could expose us to liability and/or reputational damage. Additional legislation, changes in rules promulgated by financial authorities and self-regulatory organizations or changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and rules, either in the U.S. or abroad, may directly affect our mode of operation and profitability.

The U.S. and foreign government agencies and self-regulatory organizations, as well as state securities commissions in the U.S., are empowered to conduct periodic examinations and initiate administrative proceedings that can result in censure, fine, the issuance of cease-and-desist orders, and/or the suspension or expulsion of a broker-dealer or its directors, officers, or employees. See “Item 1A — Risk Factors” beginning on page 17.

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U.S. Regulation. As of December 31, 2021, JVB was registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC and was a member of and regulated by FINRA. JVB is subject to the regulations of FINRA and industry standards of practice that cover many aspects of its business, including initial licensing requirements, sales and trading practices, relationships with customers (including the handling of cash and margin accounts), capital structure, capital requirements, record-keeping and reporting procedures, experience and training requirements for certain employees, and supervision of the conduct of affiliated persons, including directors, officers, and employees. FINRA has the power to expel, fine, and otherwise discipline member firms and their employees for violations of these rules and regulations. JVB is also registered as a broker-dealer in certain states, requiring us to comply with the laws, rules, and regulations of each state in which JVB is registered. Each state may revoke the registration to conduct a securities business in that state and may fine or otherwise discipline broker-dealers and their employees for failure to comply with such state’s laws, rules, and regulations.

The SEC, FINRA, and various other regulatory agencies within and outside of the U.S. have stringent rules and regulations with respect to the maintenance of specific levels of net capital by regulated entities. Generally, a broker-dealer’s net capital is net worth plus qualified subordinated debt less deductions for certain types of assets. The net capital rule under the Exchange Act requires that at least a minimum part of a broker-dealer’s assets be maintained in a relatively liquid form. The SEC and FINRA impose rules that require notification when net capital falls below certain predefined criteria. These rules also dictate the ratio of debt to equity in the regulatory capital composition of a broker-dealer and constrain the ability of a broker-dealer to expand its business under certain circumstances. If a firm fails to maintain the required net capital, it may be subject to suspension or revocation of registration by the applicable regulatory agency, and suspension or expulsion by these regulators could ultimately lead to a firm’s liquidation. Additionally, the net capital rule under the Exchange Act and certain FINRA rules impose requirements that may have the effect of prohibiting a broker-dealer from distributing or withdrawing capital and requiring prior notice to the SEC and FINRA for certain capital withdrawals.

If these net capital rules are changed or expanded, or if there is an unusually large charge against our net capital, our operations that require the intensive use of capital would be limited. A large operating loss or charge against our net capital could adversely affect our ability to expand or even maintain current levels of business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

Our investment adviser subsidiaries, CCFM and DCM, are registered with the SEC as investment advisers and are subject to the rules and regulations of the Investment Advisers Act. The Investment Advisers Act imposes numerous obligations on registered investment advisers including record-keeping, operational and marketing requirements, disclosure obligations, limitations on principal transactions between an adviser and its affiliates and advisory clients, and prohibitions on fraudulent activities. The SEC is authorized to institute proceedings and impose sanctions for violations of the Investment Advisers Act, ranging from fines and censure to termination of an investment adviser’s registration. Investment advisers are also subject to certain state securities laws and regulations.

We are also subject to the U.S.A PATRIOT Act of 2001 (the “Patriot Act”), which imposes obligations regarding the prevention and detection of money-laundering activities, including the establishment of customer due diligence, customer verification, and other compliance policies and procedures. These regulations require certain disclosures by, and restrict the activities of, broker-dealers, among others. Failure to comply with these new requirements may result in monetary, regulatory and, in the case of the Patriot Act, criminal penalties.

In July 2010, the federal government passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”). The Dodd-Frank Act significantly restructures and intensifies regulation in the financial services industry, with provisions that include, among other things, the creation of a new systemic risk oversight body (i.e., the Financial Stability Oversight Council), expansion of the authority of existing regulators, increased regulation of and restrictions on OTC derivatives markets and transactions, broadening of the reporting and regulation of executive compensation, expansion of the standards for market participants in dealing with clients and customers, and regulation of fiduciary duties owed by municipal advisors or conduit borrowers of municipal securities. In addition, Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act (known as the “Volker Rule”) and section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Act (known as the “swaps push-out rule”) limit proprietary trading of certain securities and swaps by certain banking entities. Although we are not a banking entity and are not otherwise subject to these rules, some of our clients and many of our counterparties are banks or entities affiliated with banks and will be subject to these restrictions.  These sections of the Dodd-Frank Act and the regulations that are adopted to implement them could negatively affect the swaps and securities markets by reducing their depth and liquidity and thereby affect pricing in these markets.  Further, the Dodd-Frank Act as a whole and the intensified regulatory environment will likely alter certain business practices and change the competitive landscape of the financial services industry, which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.  To date, we have adapted successfully to the applicable legislative and regulatory requirements of Dodd-Frank.

In June 2018, in response to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, we created a new subsidiary, Cohen & Company Financial (Europe) Limited (“CCFEL”) in Ireland, for the purpose of seeking to become regulated to perform asset management and capital markets activities in Ireland and the European Union. In April 2019, CCFEL received authorization from the Central Bank of Ireland (“CBI”) under the European Union (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2017 to provide Financial Instruments.  The services for which CCFEL received authorization include the receipt and transmission of orders in relation to Financial Instruments, the execution of orders on behalf of clients, portfolio management, investment advice and investment research, and financial analysis.  In addition, CCFEL applied for approval of a French branch, which approval was granted by the CBI and the branch was authorized by the French regulators in April 2019.  Following authorization of the French Branch of CCFEL, various contracts originally entered into by Cohen & Company Financial Limited (“CCFL”), formerly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom, were novated to the French Branch of CCFEL. The novation of contracts was completed on July 1, 2019. In order to finalize our Brexit plans and to increase the efficiency of our activity in Europe (and as all the regulated activity of CCFEL was carried out by its French branch), we later created a new subsidiary, CCFESA, in France, for the purpose of taking over our regulated European activities under one regulated entity. In October 2021, CCFESA received authorization from the French banking regulator (“ACPR”) to act as Investment Firm under the European Union (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2017 to provide Financial Instruments.  The services for which CCFESA received authorization include the receipt and transmission of orders in relation to Financial Instruments, the execution of orders on behalf of clients, portfolio management, investment advice and investment research, and financial analysis. Following authorization of CCFESA, various contracts originally entered into by CCFL and CCFEL were novated to CCFESA. The novation of contracts was completed on November 1, 2021. Further to such novation, both CCFL and CCFEL have stopped carrying out any regulated activity and are the process of liquidating.       

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French Regulation. Our French subsidiary, Cohen & Company Financial (Europe) S.A. (“CCFESA”) is an investment services provider authorized and regulated by the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, the “ACPR”). CCFESA is subject to the ACPR’s rules and guidance, but also to the rules of the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the “AMF”) and the relevant provisions of the French Monetary and Financial Code and the AMF’s general regulations. CCFESA’s license by the ACPR covers the following activities: (1) order reception and transmission for third parties; (2) order execution for third parties; (3) investment advice; (4) portfolio management for third parties; and (5) research and financial analysis.  An overview of key aspects of France’s regulatory regime, which apply to CCFESA, is set out below.

Ongoing regulatory obligations. As a French regulated entity, CCFESA is subject to ongoing regulatory obligations, which cover the following wide-ranging aspects of its business. The ACPR sets conditions that all French authorized investment firms, including CCFESA, must satisfy in order to become and remain authorized by the ACPR. These relate to the firm’s initial capital and appropriate financial resources for the proposed activities, the identity and status of direct and indirect shareholders, a management that has the knowledge, experience and fitness of investment firms and is located in France and has a program of operations for each of the proposed services approved by the AMF.

CCFESA is expected to comply with the ACPR’s regulatory frameworks.  Consequently, the ACPR imposes overarching responsibilities on the directors and senior management of a regulated firm. Key requirements in this context include the need to have adequate systems and controls in relation to: (1) senior management arrangements and general organizational requirements; (2) compliance, internal audit, and financial crime prevention; (3) outsourcing; (4) record keeping; (5) risk management; and (6) managing conflicts of interest.

CCFESA permitted activity is to deal only with eligible counterparties and professional clients as defined under Schedule 2 of the MIFID II Regulations in relation to the regulated activities it conducts. The level with which CCFESA must comply is dependent on the categorization of its clients, which should be considered in the context of the regulated activity being performed. These rules include requirements relating to the type and level of information that must be provided to clients before business is conducted with or for them, the regulation of financial promotions, procedures for entering into client agreements, obligations relating to the suitability and appropriateness of investments, and rules about managing investments and reporting to clients.

Reporting. All authorized firms in France are required to report to the ACPR and to the AMF on a periodic basis. CCFESA’s reporting requirements are based on the scope of its license. The ACPR will use the information submitted by CCFESA to monitor it on an ongoing basis. There are also high-level reporting obligations, whereby CCFESA is required to engage with the AMF in an open and co-operative way and to disclose appropriately anything relating to its activity and which would affect its business plan, activity or any relevant information submitted to the regulators in the context of its license application.

Enforcement powers. The ACPR has a wide range of disciplinary and enforcement tools that it can use should a regulated firm fail to comply with its regulatory obligations.  However, this primary jurisdiction does not exclude that of the AMF with regard more specifically to any failure by persons placed under its supervision (and therefore within investment firms) to fulfil their professional obligations. In addition, the AMF has the option of delegating its power of control, in particular to market operators and clearing houses and to the ACPR. For its part, the ACPR can also delegate its power of control, in particular to the AMF.

A wide range of tools can be used to take action against regulated entities and/or individuals which fall short of our expected standards of behavior including:

● issuance of a warning

● issuance of a rebuke

● prohibition, for a maximum period of 10 years, from carrying out certain operations and any other limitations in the exercise of its activity

● temporary suspension or compulsory resignation, for a maximum period of 10 years, of one or more managers, with or without the appointment of a provisional administrator

● partial or total withdrawal of approval or removal from the list of authorized persons, with or without the appointment of a liquidator

● temporary or definitive withdrawal of the professional card, temporary ban on trading for their own account, temporary or definitive ban on the exercise of all or part of the activities or the exercise of management functions within the relevant entity;

● imposition of a fine.

With regard to the pecuniary sanctions which may be imposed by the ACPR and/or the AMF instead of or in addition to the aforementioned sanctions, such fines cannot exceed 100 million euros (or ten times the amount of the benefit derived from such breach if this can be determined) or 15% of net annual turnover for breaches specifically referred to in the French Monetary and Financial Code.  Fines issued against individuals under the authority or acting on behalf of an investment firm cannot exceed 15 million euros (or ten times the amount of the benefit derived from the breach if this can be determined).

In addition to the general sanctions regime as described above, a specific regime is provided for breaches of the provisions of the CRR Regulation and the CRD IV Directive, which establish in particular the capital and liquidity requirements, as well as the rules of governance to which investment firms are subject.

Financial Resources. As part of the firm regulatory requirements under the ACPR it must maintain adequate financial resources as set out in the European Union Regulation (EU) 2019/2033, also known as the Investment Firms Regulation (IFR), and Directive (EU) 2019/2034, also known as the Investment Firms Directive (IFD). The IFR and the IFD apply to investment firms deemed sufficiently small and non-interconnected (so called “class 3” firms); “Class 3” firms are subject to lighter requirements; specifically, the capital requirement for a class 3 firm is equal to the higher of (1) €75k of permanent minimum capital requirement (PMR); or (2) a quarter of its fixed overheads requirements. CCFESA is classified as a class 3 firm. This means that it would be subject to a base regulatory tangible capital requirement of €480k . In addition, this base capital will be reviewed on an annual basis. The Company's capital will also be reviewed in the event of a material change in the Company's business since the preceding year.

Anti-money Laundering Requirements. A French financial institution is subject to additional client acceptance requirements, which stem from anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislation that requires a firm to identify its clients before conducting business with or for them and to retain appropriate documentary evidence of this process. Relevant anti-money laundering legislation in France is derived from EU Directives and more particularly EU Directive 2015/849 of 20 May 2015 (also known as the “Fourth Directive”) and EU Directive 2018/843 of 30 May 2018 (also known as the “Fifth Directive”).  The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML-CFT) is one of the AMF’s main supervisory priorities. The ACPR is also responsible for protecting the customers of the supervised institutions and ensuring the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It also has resolution powers.

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The obligations derived from the Fourth Directive were implemented into the French Monetary and Financial Code and  include:

● Risk assessment

● Identification and verification of the identity of clients and their beneficial owners

● Due diligence measures upon entry and throughout the business relation

● Obligation to file suspicious transaction reports to TRACFIN

● Internal audit and reporting to the AMF

● Implementation of asset freezing measures

The Fifth Directive has been implemented into French law at the beginning of 2020. It sets out a series of measures to fight against terrorist financing more effectively and guarantee improved transparency of financial transactions.

Changes in Existing Laws and Rules. Additional legislation and regulations, changes in rules promulgated by the government regulatory bodies, or changes in the interpretation or enforcement of laws and regulations may directly affect the manner of our operation, our net capital requirements, or our profitability. In addition, any expansion of our activities into new areas may subject us to additional regulatory requirements that could adversely affect our business, reputation, and results of operations.

Available Information

Our internet website address is www.cohenandcompany.com. We make available through our website, free of charge, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports that we file or furnish pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such information with, or furnish such information to, the SEC.

Our filings can also be obtained for free on the SEC’s Internet site at http://www.sec.gov. The reference to our website address does not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained on our website in this filing or in other filings with the SEC, and the information contained on our website is not part of this filing.

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ITEM 1A.  RISK FACTORS. 

You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations could be adversely affected. The risks and uncertainties described below constitute all of the material risks of the Company of which we are currently aware; however, the risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only risks the Company will face. Additional risks and uncertainties of which we are presently unaware, or that we do not currently deem to be material, may become important factors that affect us and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and the trading price of our securities. Investing in the Company’s securities involves risk and the following risk factors, together with the other information contained in this report and the other reports and documents filed by us with the SEC, including Forms ADV filed by CCFM and DCM, should be considered carefully.

Summary of Risk Factors

The following summary highlights some of the principal risks that could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. This summary is not complete and the risks summarized below are not the only risks we face.

Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry:

● Difficult market conditions have adversely affected our business and may continue to do so.

● Economic slowdown, market volatility, a recession and increasing interest rates may impair investments and operating results.

● We may experience write downs of financial instruments and other losses due to the volatile and illiquid market conditions.

● We have incurred losses for certain periods covered by this report and in the recent past and may incur losses in the future.

● Continued difficulties in our Capital Markets segment due to intense competition has resulted in significant strain on our administrative, operational and financial resources and these difficulties may continue in the future.

● The incurrence of additional debt could adversely effect on our financial condition and results of operation.

● Our gestation repo business serves a narrow market and is likely subject to highly volatile demand.

● Our mortgage group’s revenue is highly dependent on the U.S. housing market, generally.

● Our matched book repo financing is facilitated through JVB which is subject to various broker-dealer regulations.

● We may not be successful in achieving our strategic goals with respect to our matched book repo business.

● Our Capital Markets segment depends significantly on a limited group of customers.

● Failure to retain senior management and qualified personnel may result in our not being able to execute our business strategy.

● Payment of severance could strain our cash flow.

● If additional cash is not available, our business and financial performance will be significantly harmed.

● Failure to obtain or maintain adequate capital and funding would adversely affect the growth and results of our operations.

● The lack of liquidity in certain investments may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

● If we are unable to manage the risks of international operations effectively, our business could be adversely affected.

● The securities settlement process exposes us to risks that may adversely affect our business.

● We are exposed to the risk that third parties that are indebted to us will not perform their obligations.

● We are exposed to various risks related to margin requirements under repurchase agreements and securities financing arrangements and are highly dependent on our clearing relationships.  

● We have market risk exposure from unmatched principal transactions entered into by our brokerage desks.

● Pricing and other competitive pressures may impair the revenues and profitability of our brokerage business.

● Increase in capital commitments in our trading business increases the potential for significant losses.

● Our principal trading and investments expose us to risk of loss.

● Our principal investments are subject to various risks and expose us to a significant risk of capital loss.

● Transition away from LIBOR may adversely affect our business.

● Historical returns of our funds and managed accounts may not be indicative of their future results.

● There is increasing regulatory supervision of alternative asset management companies.

● Asset management clients generally may redeem their investments, which could reduce our asset management fee revenues.

● The investment management business is intensely competitive, which could have a material adverse impact on our business.

● Poor performance of our investment funds’ and separately managed accounts’ investments could result in a decline in our asset management revenue and earnings and investors terminating our management agreements.

● If the investments we have made on behalf of our CDOs perform poorly, we will suffer a decline in our asset management revenue and earnings and the investors in our CDOs may seek to terminate our management agreements.

● Our investments in SPAC Sponsor Entities are speculative, subject to total loss, and illiquid prior to business combination.

● Our investments in post-business combination SPACs are carried at fair value but are subject to sale restrictions which could result in significant losses to our business.

● Our strategic relationship with Fintech Masala, LLC could result in conflicts of interest and a termination of such relationship could result in losses to our business.

● Our management may allocate some portion of their time to the business of the SPAC, which may create conflicts of interest.

● Any agreement to indemnify a SPAC against certain claims could negatively affect our financial results.

● We may make future loans to SPACs which may not be repaid.

● If our risk management systems for our businesses are ineffective, we may be exposed to material unanticipated losses.

● Failures in our information and communications systems could significantly disrupt our business.

● We may not be able to keep pace with continuing changes in technology.

● Failure to protect client data or prevent breaches of our information systems could expose us to liability/reputational damage.

● We are largely dependent on Pershing LLC to provide clearing services and margin financing.

● Our substantial level of indebtedness could adversely affect our financial health and ability to compete.

● Changes in accounting interpretations or assumptions could adversely impact our financial statements.

● Any change of our investment strategy, hedging strategy, asset allocation and operational policies may result in riskier investments and adversely affect the market value of our Common Stock.

● Maintenance of our Investment Company Act exemption imposes limits on our operations.

● The soundness of other financial institutions and intermediaries affects us.

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● We operate in a highly regulated industry and may face increasing restrictions on, and examination of, the conduct of our operations.

● Substantial legal liability or significant regulatory action could materially affect our business.

● Highly competitive markets could have a material adverse effect on our business.

● Employee misconduct or error could harm our business.

Risks Related to Our Organizational Structure and Ownership of Our Common Stock:

● We are dependent on distributions from the Operating LLC as a holding company.

● Daniel G. Cohen’s significant ownership interests in the Operating LLC and other entities could create conflicts of interest.

● As a “controlled company,” our other stockholders may lose certain corporate governance protections.

● Redemptions of our outstanding LLC Units may cause substantial dilution to our existing stockholders.

● We may not fully realize our deferred tax asset.

● The Maryland General Corporation Law and our charter and bylaws may prevent potentially beneficial takeover attempts.

Risks Related to General and Global Factors:

● The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe disruptions in the U.S. and global economy and is expected to continue to impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

● We may incur losses as a result of unforeseen events, including further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, cybersecurity incidents and events, terrorist attacks, climate-related incidents, or other natural disasters.  

● We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.  Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.  

● Repurchases of our Common Stock could adversely affect our business.

● Future sales of our Common Stock could lower the price of our Common Stock and harm our future securities offerings.

● Our stockholders’ percentage ownership in the Company may be diluted in the future.

● If we fail to control our costs effectively, our business could be disrupted and adversely affected.

● We may need to offer new investment strategies and products in order to continue to generate revenue.

● Our failure to deal appropriately with conflicts of interest could damage our reputation and adversely affect our business.

● Insurance may be inadequate to cover risks facing the Company.

● We depend on third-party software licenses and the loss of key licenses could adversely affect our brokerage services.

● Failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls could harm our business.

● The market price of our Common Stock may be volatile and may be affected by market conditions beyond our control.

● Our Common Stock may be delisted, which may have a material adverse effect on the liquidity and our Common Stock value.

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Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry

Difficult market conditions have adversely affected our business in many ways and may continue to adversely affect our business in a manner which could materially reduce our revenues.  

Our business has been and may continue to be materially affected by conditions in the global financial markets and economic conditions. The financial markets continue to be volatile and continue to present many challenges such as the level and volatility of interest rates, investor sentiment, the availability and cost of credit, the status of the U.S. mortgage and real estate markets, consumer confidence, unemployment and geopolitical issues.

A prolonged economic slowdown, volatility in the markets, a recession, and increasing interest rates could impair our investments and harm our operating results.

Our investments are, and will continue to be, susceptible to economic slowdowns, recessions and rising interest rates, which may lead to financial losses in our investments and a decrease in revenues, net income and asset values. These events may reduce the value of our investments, reduce the number of attractive investment opportunities available to us and harm our operating results, which, in turn, may adversely affect our cash flow from operations.

Our ability to raise capital in the long-term or short-term debt capital markets or the equity markets, or to access secured lending markets, has been and could continue to be adversely affected by conditions in the U.S. and international markets and the economy. Global market and economic conditions have been, and continue to be, disrupted and volatile. In particular, the cost and availability of funding have been and may continue to be adversely affected by illiquid credit markets and wider credit spreads and volatility of interest rates (including overnight repo). As a result of concern about the stability of the markets generally and the strength of counterparties specifically, many lenders and institutional investors have reduced and, in some cases, ceased to provide funding to borrowers. Continued turbulence in the U.S. and international markets and economy may adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition and the willingness of certain counterparties to do business with us.

In addition, global macroeconomic conditions and U.S. financial markets remain vulnerable to the potential risks posed by exogenous shocks, which could include, among other things, political and financial uncertainty in the U.S. and the European Union (the “EU”), continued spread of the global novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic, renewed concern about China’s economy, cybersecurity incidents and events, climate-related incidents, complications involving terrorism and armed conflicts around the world, or other challenges to global trade or travel. More generally, because our business is closely correlated to the macroeconomic outlook, a significant deterioration in that outlook or an exogenous shock would likely have an immediate negative impact on our overall results of operations. 

We may experience write downs of financial instruments and other losses related to the volatile and illiquid market conditions.

The credit markets in the U.S. experienced significant disruption and volatility from mid-2007 through early 2009, and challenging conditions have continued since that time. Although financial markets have become more stable and have generally improved since 2009, there remains a certain degree of uncertainty about a global economic recovery. Available liquidity also declined precipitously during the credit crisis and remains significantly depressed. The disruption in these markets generally, and in the U.S. and European markets in particular, impacted and may continue to impact our business. Furthermore, the asset management revenues we derive from CDOs are based on the outstanding performing principal balance of those investments. Therefore, as adverse market conditions result in defaults within these CDOs, our management fees have declined and may continue to decline. We have exposure to these markets and products, and if market conditions continue to worsen, the fair value of our investments and our management fees could further deteriorate. In addition, market volatility, illiquid market conditions and disruptions in the global credit markets have made it extremely difficult to value certain of our securities. Subsequent valuations, in light of factors then prevailing, may result in significant changes in the values of these securities, and when such securities are sold, it may be at a price materially lower than the current fair value. Any of these factors could require us to take further write downs in the fair value of our investment portfolio or cause our management fees to decline, which may have an adverse effect on our results of operations in future periods.

We have incurred losses for certain periods covered by this report and in the recent past and may incur losses in the future.

The Company recorded net loss of $3.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2019. We may incur additional losses in future periods. If we are unable to finance future losses, those losses may have a significant effect on our liquidity as well as our ability to operate our business.

In addition, the Company has incurred and may continue to incur significant expenses in connection with initiating new business activities or in connection with any expansion or reorganization of our businesses. We may also engage in strategic acquisitions and investments for which we may incur significant expenses. Accordingly, we may need to increase our revenue at a rate greater than our expenses in order to achieve and maintain our profitability. If our revenue does not increase sufficiently, or even if our revenue does increase but we are unable to manage our expenses, we will not achieve and maintain profitability in future periods.

We have experienced difficulties in our Capital Markets segment over the past several years due to intense competition in our industry, which has resulted in significant strain on our administrative, operational and financial resources. These difficulties may continue in the future.

The financial services industry and all of our businesses are intensely competitive, and we expect them to remain so. We compete with commercial banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, sponsors of mutual funds, hedge funds and other companies offering financial services in the U.S., globally, and through the internet. We compete on the basis of several factors, including transaction execution, capital or access to capital, products and services, innovation, reputation, risk appetite and price. Over time, certain sectors of the financial services industry have become more concentrated as institutions involved in a broad range of financial services have been acquired by or merged into other firms or have declared bankruptcy. These developments could result in our competitors gaining greater capital and other resources such as a broader range of products and services and geographic diversity. We have experienced and may continue to experience pricing pressures in our Capital Markets segment as a result of these factors and as some of our competitors may seek to increase market share by reducing prices.

Both margins and volumes in certain products and markets within the fixed income brokerage business have decreased materially as competition has increased and general market activity has declined. Further, we expect that competition will increase over time, resulting in continued margin pressure. These challenges have materially adversely affected our Capital Markets segment’s results of operations and may continue to do so.

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We intend to focus on improving the performance of our Capital Markets segment, which could place additional demands on our resources and increase our expenses. Improving the performance of our Capital Markets segment will depend on, among other things, our ability to successfully identify groups and individuals to join our firm and our ability to successfully grow our existing business lines and platforms and opportunistically expand into other complementary business areas. It may take more than a year for us to determine whether we have successfully integrated new individuals, lines of business and capabilities into our operations. During that time, we may incur significant expenses and expend significant time and resources toward training, integration and business development. If we are unable to hire and retain senior management or other qualified personnel, such as salespeople and traders, we will not be able to grow our business and our financial results may be materially and adversely affected.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully improve the operations of our Capital Markets segment, and any failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue and control expenses.

Our gestation repo business serves a narrow market and is likely subject to highly volatile demand.

We operate a matched gestation repo program.  Gestation repo involves entering into repo and reverse repo where the underlying collateral security represents a pool of newly issued mortgages.  Our reverse repo counterparties are mortgage originators.  This type of financing would only be of interest to mortgage originators.  Therefore, demand for gestation repo financing is narrow and volumes will therefore be more volatile. 

Mortgage and U.S. Housing Market-Related Risks

In recent years, our mortgage group has become an increasingly important component of our Capital Markets segment and the Company overall.  The mortgage group primarily earns revenue by providing hedging execution, securities financing, and trade execution services to mortgage originators and other investors in mortgage backed securities.  Therefore, this group’s revenue is highly dependent on the volume of mortgage originations in the U.S. Origination activity is highly sensitive to interest rates, the U.S. job market, housing starts, sale activity of existing housing stock, as well as the general health of the U.S. economy.  In addition, any new regulation that impacts U.S. government agency mortgage backed security issuance activity, residential mortgage underwriting standards, or otherwise impacts mortgage originators will impact our business.  We have no control over these external factors and there is no effective way for us to hedge against these risks.  Our mortgage group’s volumes and profitability will be highly impacted by these external factors.

Our Capital Markets segment depends significantly on a limited group of customers. 

From time to time, based on market conditions, a small number of our customers may account for a significant portion of the revenues earned in our Capital Markets segment. None of our customers is obligated contractually to use our services. Accordingly, these customers may direct their activities to other firms at any time. The loss of or a significant reduction in demand for our services from any of these customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

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 If we do not retain our senior management and continue to attract and retain qualified personnel, we may not be able to execute our business strategy.

The members of our senior management team have extensive experience in the financial services industry. Their reputations and relationships with investors, financing sources and members of the business community in our industry, among others, are critical elements in operating and expanding our business. As a result, the loss of the services of one or more members of our senior management team could impair our ability to execute our business strategies, which could hinder our ability to achieve and sustain profitability.  The Company has various employment arrangements with the members of its senior management team, but there can be no assurance that the terms of these employment arrangements will provide sufficient incentives for each of the members of the senior management team to continue employment with us.

We depend on the diligence, experience, skill and network of business contacts of our senior management team and our employees in connection with (1) our Capital Markets segment, (2) our asset management operations, (3) our investment activities, (4) the evaluation, negotiation, structuring and management of new business opportunities, and (5) our SPAC franchise, including our investments in SPACs and SPAC sponsors and our serving as the asset manager for certain SPAC Funds. Our business depends on the expertise of our personnel and their ability to work together as an effective team and our success depends substantially on our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel. Competition for employees with the necessary qualifications is intense, and we may not be successful in our efforts to recruit and retain the required personnel. The inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel could affect our ability to provide an acceptable level of service to our clients and funds, attract new clients, and develop new lines of business, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Payment of severance could strain our cash flow.

Certain members of our senior management team have agreements that provide for substantial severance payments. Should several of these senior managers leave our employ under circumstances entitling them to severance, or become disabled or die, the need to pay these severance benefits could put a strain on our cash flow.

Our business will require a significant amount of cash, and if it is not available, our business and financial performance will be significantly harmed. 

We require a substantial amount of cash to fund our investments, pay our expenses and hold our assets. More specifically, we require cash to:

• meet our working capital requirements and debt service obligations;

• make incremental investments in our Capital Markets segment;

• make investments in our growing asset management business;

• make investments supporting our SPAC franchise, including in pre- and post-business combination SPAC public companies and in SPAC sponsor entities;

• hire new employees; and

• meet other needs.

Our primary sources of working capital and cash are expected to consist of:
     

• revenue from operations, including net trading revenue, asset management revenue, new issue and advisory revenue, interest income and dividends from our investment portfolio and potential monetization of principal investments;

• interest income from temporary investments and cash equivalents;

• sales of assets; and

• proceeds from future borrowings or any offerings of our equity or debt securities.

We may not be able to generate a sufficient amount of cash from operations and investing and financing activities in order to successfully execute our business strategy.

Failure to obtain or maintain adequate capital and funding would adversely affect the growth and results of our operations and may, in turn, negatively affect the market price of our Common Stock.

Liquidity is essential to our businesses. We depend upon the availability of adequate funding and capital for our operations. In particular, we may need to raise additional capital in order to significantly grow our business. In recent years, we have engaged in a number of capital raising transactions with Daniel G. Cohen, Chairman of the Board and President and Chief Executive of European operations, and/or persons or entities controlled by or close to Mr. Cohen because the terms of such transactions have been more favorable than terms available from unrelated third parties.  Our liquidity could be substantially adversely affected by our inability to raise funding in the long-term or short-term debt capital markets or the equity capital markets or our inability to access the secured lending markets. Factors that we cannot control, such as continued or additional disruption of the financial markets, or negative views about the financial services industry generally, have limited and may continue to limit our ability to raise capital. In addition, our ability to raise capital could be impaired if lenders develop a negative perception of our long-term or short-term financial prospects or if Mr. Cohen becomes unwilling to continue to fund the Company’s operations. Lenders could develop negative perceptions if we incur large trading losses, we suffer a decline in the level of our business activity, we suffer material litigation losses, regulatory authorities take significant action against us, or we discover significant employee misconduct or illegal activity, among other reasons. Sufficient funding or capital may not be available to us in the future on terms that are acceptable, or at all. If we are unable to raise funding using the methods described above, we would likely need to finance or liquidate unencumbered assets, such as our investment and trading portfolios, in order to meet our maturing liabilities. We may be unable to sell some of our assets, or we may have to sell assets at a discount from market value, either of which could adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows.  If we are unable to meet our funding needs on a timely basis, our business would be adversely affected and there may be a negative impact on the market price of our Common Stock.

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Our investments in the equity interests of SPACs and SPAC Sponsor Entities may expose us to increased risks and liabilities.

We have and are likely to continue to invest in the equity interests of SPACs and SPAC sponsor entities, including SPACs sponsored by us, our affiliates, and third parties. There are numerous risks associated with investing in the equity interests of SPACs and SPAC sponsor entities, including: (i) because a SPAC is raised without a specifically-identified acquisition target, it may never, or only after an extended period of time, be able to find and execute a suitable business combination, during which period the capital which we have invested in or committed to the SPAC will not be available to us for other uses; (ii) investments made by us in a SPAC and SPAC sponsor entities may be entirely lost or otherwise decline in value if the SPAC does not timely execute a business combination; (iii) SPACs typically invest in single assets and not diversified portfolios, and investments therein are therefore subject to significant concentration risk; (iv) SPACs incur substantial fees, costs and expenses related to their initial public offerings, being a public company and in connection with pursuing a business combination (in some cases, regardless of whether, or when, the SPAC ultimately consummates a business transaction); (v) the use of SPACs as an investment tool has recently become more widespread, which has resulted in increased competition in seeking and identifying viable targets for potential business combinations;  and (vi) there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the viability of SPAC investing on a large scale, the supply of desirable transactions relative to the pace at which SPACs are currently being formed and whether regulatory, tax or other authorities will implement additional or adverse policies relating to SPACs and SPAC investing. We expect regulatory scrutiny of SPACs and other blank check companies to increase and the regulations regarding SPACs may change. Our investments in the equity interests of SPACs and SPAC sponsor entities may also subject us to the risk of litigation by third parties, including fund investors dissatisfied with the performance or management of SPAC Funds, public investors in SPACs and a variety of other potential litigants. Any losses relating to these developments could adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition, as well as harm our professional reputation. 

As the number of SPACs evaluating targets increases, attractive targets may become scarcer and there may be more competition for attractive targets. This could increase the cost of the business combinations of the SPACs of which we are the sponsors.

In recent years, the number of SPACs that have been formed has increased substantially. Many potential targets for SPACs have already entered into an initial business combination, and there are still many SPACs seeking targets for their initial business combination, as well as many such companies currently in registration. As a result, at times, fewer attractive targets may be available, and it may require more time, more effort and more resources to identify suitable targets and to consummate business combinations. In addition, because there are more SPACs seeking to enter into initial business combinations with available targets, the competition for available targets with attractive fundamentals or business models may increase, which could cause target companies to demand improved financial terms. Attractive deals could also become scarcer for other reasons, such as economic or industry sector downturns, geopolitical tensions, or increases in the cost of additional capital needed to close business combinations or operate targets post-business combination. This could increase the cost of, delay or otherwise complicate or frustrate the ability of the SPACs of which we are sponsors to find and consummate business combinations, and may result in such SPACs inability to consummate business combinations.

Our investments in SPAC Sponsor Entities are highly speculative, subject to total loss, and completely illiquid prior to business combination.

           The Company invests in the sponsor entities of SPACs and these investments are highly speculative.  Generally, SPAC sponsor entities are LLC’s that pool their members’ interests and invest in the private placement of a SPAC.  The SPAC will also raise funds in a public offering and seek to complete a business combination within an agreed upon timeframe.  The SPAC will use the proceeds of the private placement to pay transaction and operating expenses during the period it is seeking a business combination.  The proceeds of the public offering are placed in an interest-bearing trust and can only be used to complete the business combination.  Typically, the public investors must approve any business combination prior to its effectiveness.  If a business combination is not completed within the agreed upon timeframe, the SPAC will liquidate and return the funds to the public investors.  If there are funds remaining after liquidation, the sponsor entities may receive some portion of their investment back, but will likely suffer a total loss of investment.  Accordingly, our investments in SPAC sponsor entities is subject to a total loss of our investment and such losses may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.  

During the period prior to the distribution of our interests in the SPAC sponsor entity, the Company includes its investment as a component of investment in equity method affiliates.  As of December 31, 2021, of the Company’s $48.2 million balance of investment in equity method affiliates, $42.6 million represents direct or indirect investments in SPAC sponsor entities.  These investments are subject to transfer restrictions (as described in greater detail below), are completely illiquid and could be worthless if the underlying sponsor entities liquidate without completing a business combination. 

Our investments in post-business combination SPACs are carried at fair value but are subject to sale restrictions which could result in significant losses to our business.

We hold securities in public companies that were merger partners with the SPACs in which we invested or sponsored and we intend to continue to invest in SPACs and SPAC sponsor entities in the future.  A significant portion of the securities in the post-business combination SPACs are and will be restricted for sale and may require the securities to trade above a certain price level for a certain period of time prior to becoming transferable.  It is possible that the securities which we hold in post-business combination SPACs never trade at the applicable price levels for the requisite period of time and, in turn, the transfer restrictions thereon are never lifted.  In such event, such restricted securities may be completely illiquid and this could significantly reduce their value, if not render them completely worthless.  Further, investments in post-business combination SPAC securities may not be transferable until such securities are registered for sale with the SEC.  The Company could suffer significant mark-to-market losses on these restricted securities prior to being able to sell them.  In some cases, we hedge these positions by entering into short options trades on the underlying unrestricted equity.  However, we are limited in our ability to enter into these because of capital and financing requirements associated with such trades. 

As of December 31, 2021, of our $56.0 million reported as other investments, at fair value, $19.4 million represented restricted shares of post-business combination SPACs that were subject to transfer restrictions and could not be sold.  If these securities do not trade at the applicable per share price levels for the requisite periods of time and, in turn, the transfer restrictions thereon are never lifted, we could suffer significant losses and these securities could be rendered illiquid and even worthless, which could result in significant harm to our business and results of operations.

Our strategic relationship with Fintech Masala, LLC (“Fintech Masala”) could terminate, which could adversely affect the growth and viability of our SPAC franchise, which, in turn would negatively affect our results of our operations, and our strategic relationship with Fintech Masala could also result in conflicts of interest which could negatively affect our SPAC franchise and our business.

Fintech Masala, an entity of which Daniel G. Cohen and his mother, Betsy Cohen, are members, is a fintech investing platform and the sponsor of third party SPACs.  We have entered into consulting agreements with FinTech Masala pursuant to which Betsy Cohen and other Fintech Masala representatives have provided and will continue to provide consulting services to us regarding our SPAC franchise and the SPAC entities of which we are sponsors.  We anticipate that we will continue to enter into consulting arrangements with Fintech Masala in connection with the SPACs which we sponsor in the future.  In the event that our strategic relationship with Fintech Masala is terminated, the loss of the services of Fintech Masala’s personnel could significantly impair our SPAC franchise's ability to continue to succeed, which could hinder our ability to achieve and sustain profitability. 

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In addition, certain of our employees also provide consulting and other SPAC-related services to Fintech Masala pursuant to contractual arrangements with the SPACs of which Fintech Masala is a sponsor.  Pursuant to these contractual relationships, our employees may be incentivized to identify and consummate potential SPAC business combinations on behalf of Fintech Masala rather than for us.  Further, these contractual relationships could result in our competing with Fintech Masala for potential SPAC business combination targets and other opportunities.  All of the foregoing could result in lost opportunities for our SPAC franchise, which could have negative impacts on our SPAC franchise and business as a whole.

If we are unable to manage the risks of international operations effectively, our business could be adversely affected.

We currently provide services and products to clients in Europe, through offices in Dublin and Paris. There are certain additional risks inherent in doing business in international markets, particularly in the regulated brokerage and asset management industries. These risks include:

• additional regulatory requirements;

• difficulties in recruiting and retaining personnel and managing the international operations;

• potentially adverse tax consequences, tariffs and other trade barriers;

•  adverse labor laws; and

• reduced protection for intellectual property rights.

If we are unable to manage any of these risks effectively, our business could be adversely affected.

In addition, our current international operations expose us to the risk of fluctuations in currency exchange rates generally and fluctuations in the exchange rates for the Euro and the British Pound Sterling in particular. Although we may hedge our foreign currency risk, we may not be able to do so successfully and may incur losses that could adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations.

 The securities settlement process exposes us to risks that may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We provide brokerage services to our clients in the form of “matched principal transactions” or by providing liquidity by purchasing securities from them on a principal basis. In “matched principal transactions” we act as a “middleman” by serving as a counterparty to both a buyer and a seller in matching reciprocal back-to-back trades. These transactions, which generally involve bonds, are then settled through clearing institutions with which we have a contractual relationship. There is no guarantee that we will be able to maintain existing contractual relationships with clearing institutions on favorable terms or that we will be able to establish relationships with new clearing institutions on favorable terms, or at all.

In executing matched principal transactions, we are exposed to the risk that one of the counterparties to a transaction may fail to fulfill its obligations, either because it is not matched immediately or, even if matched, one party fails to deliver the cash or securities it is obligated to deliver upon settlement. In addition, some of the products we trade or may trade in the future are in less commoditized markets which may exacerbate this risk because transactions in such markets may not settle on a timely basis. Adverse movements in the prices of securities that are the subject of these transactions can increase our risk. In addition, widespread technological or communication failures, as well as actual or perceived credit difficulties, or the insolvency of one or more large or visible market participants, could cause market-wide credit difficulties or other market disruptions. These failures, difficulties or disruptions could result in a large number of market participants not settling transactions or otherwise not performing their obligations.

We are subject to financing risk in these circumstances because if a transaction does not settle on a timely basis, the resulting unmatched position may need to be financed, either directly by us or through one of our clearing organizations at our expense. These charges may not be recoverable from the failing counterparty. Finally, in instances where the unmatched position or failure to deliver is prolonged or widespread due to rapid or widespread declines in liquidity for an instrument, there may also be regulatory capital charges required to be taken by us which, depending on their size and duration, could limit our business flexibility or even force the curtailment of those portions of our business requiring higher levels of capital. Credit or settlement losses of this nature could adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations.

In the process of executing matched principal transactions, miscommunications and other errors by our clients or by us can arise whereby a transaction is not completed with one or more counterparties to the transaction, leaving us with either a long or short unmatched position. If the unmatched position is promptly discovered and there is a prompt disposition of the unmatched position, the risk to us is usually limited. If the discovery of an out trade is delayed, the risk is heightened by the increased possibility of intervening market movements prior to disposition. Although out trades usually become known at the time of, or later on the day of, the trade, it is possible that they may not be discovered until later in the settlement process. When out trades are discovered, our policy will generally be to have the unmatched position disposed of promptly, whether or not this disposition would result in a loss to us. The occurrence of unmatched positions generally rises with increases in the volatility of the market and, depending on their number and amount, such out trades have the potential to have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

From time to time, we may also provide brokerage services in the form of agency transactions. In agency transactions, we charge a commission for connecting buyers and sellers and assisting in the negotiation of the price and other material terms of the transaction. After all material terms of a transaction are agreed upon, we identify the buyer and seller to each other and leave them to settle the trade directly. We are exposed to credit risk for commissions we bill to clients for agency brokerage services.

Participation in matched principal, principal, or agency transactions subjects us to disputes, counterparty credit risk, lack of liquidity, operational failure or other market wide or counterparty specific risks. Any losses arising from such risks could adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations. In addition, the failure of a significant number of counterparties or a counterparty that holds a significant amount of derivatives exposure, or that has significant financial exposure to, or reliance on, the mortgage, asset-backed or related markets, could have a material adverse effect on the trading volume and liquidity in a particular market for which we provide brokerage services or on the broader financial markets.

We have policies and procedures to identify, monitor and manage these risks, through reporting and control procedures and by monitoring credit standards applicable to our clients. These policies and procedures, however, may not be fully effective. Some of our risk management methods will depend upon the evaluation of information regarding markets, clients or other matters that are publicly available or otherwise accessible by us. That information may not, in all cases, be accurate, complete, up-to-date or properly evaluated. If our policies and procedures are not fully effective or we are not always successful in monitoring or evaluating the risks to which we may be exposed, our financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, we may not be able to obtain insurance to cover all of the types of risks we face and any insurance policies we do obtain may not provide adequate coverage for covered risks.

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We are exposed to the risk that third parties that are indebted to us will not perform their obligations.

Credit risk refers to the risk of loss arising from borrower, counterparty or obligor default when a borrower, counterparty or obligor does not meet its obligations. We incur significant credit risk exposure through our Capital Markets segment. This risk may arise from a variety of business activities, including but not limited to extending credit to clients through various lending commitments; providing short or long-term funding that is secured by physical or financial collateral whose value may at times be insufficient to fully cover the loan repayment amount; entering into swap or other derivative contracts under which counterparties have obligations to make payments to us; and posting margin and/or collateral to clearing houses, clearing agencies, exchanges, banks, securities firms and other financial counterparties. We incur credit risk in traded securities and loan pools whereby the value of these assets may fluctuate based on realized or expected defaults on the underlying obligations or loans.

There is a possibility that continued difficult economic conditions may further negatively impact our clients and our current credit exposures. Although we regularly review our credit exposures, default risk may arise from events or circumstances that are difficult to detect or foresee.

We are exposed to various risks related to margin requirements under repurchase agreements and securities financing arrangements and are highly dependent on our clearing relationships.  

We maintain repurchase agreements with various third-party financial institutions and other counterparties. Under those repurchase agreements we act as both a buyer and a seller of the subject securities. Our business related to these repurchase agreements is predominantly matched, meaning that we do not purchase or sell securities unless there is another institution prepared to simultaneously purchase or sell securities to or from us, as applicable. There are limits to the amount of securities that may be transferred pursuant to these agreements, and available lines both for us and our counterparties for whom we purchase securities are approved on a case-by-case basis after each counterparty has gone through a credit review process. The repurchase agreements we execute with our counterparties include substantive provisions other than those covenants and other customary provisions contained in standard master repurchase agreements. However, while these additional provisions may work to mitigate some of the risks related to repurchase agreement transactions, these additional substantive provisions do not guarantee the performance of a counterparty or alleviate all of the potential risks we could face from entering into repurchase agreement transactions. 

The repurchase agreements generally require a seller under a repurchase agreement to transfer additional securities to the counterparty who is acting as the buyer under the repurchase agreement in the event that the value of the securities then held by the buyer falls below specified levels. Each repurchase agreement contains events of default in cases where a counterparty breaches its obligations under the agreement. When we are acting in the capacity of a seller under these agreements, we receive margin calls from time to time in the ordinary course of business, and no assurance can be given that we will be able to satisfy requests from our counterparties to post additional collateral in the future. Similarly, when we are acting in the capacity of a buyer under these agreements we make margin calls from time to time to our seller counterparties in the ordinary course of business and no assurance can be given that our counterparties will have adequate funds or collateral to satisfy such margin call requirements. Generally, if there was an event of default under a repurchase agreement, such event of default would provide the non-defaulting counterparty with the option to terminate all outstanding repurchase transactions with us and make all amounts due from the defaulting counterparty immediately payable. However, there can be no assurance that any such defaulting counterparty will have the funds or collateral needed to fully satisfy any such margin call or other amount due. Generally, repurchase obligations are full recourse obligations and if we were to default under a repurchase obligation, the counterparty would have recourse to our other assets if the collateral was insufficient to satisfy our obligation in full.

In addition, our clearing brokers provide securities financing arrangements including margin arrangements and securities borrowing and lending arrangements. These arrangements generally require us to transfer additional securities or cash to the clearing broker in the event that the value of the securities then held by the clearing broker in the margin account falls below specified levels and contain events of default that would be triggered if we were to breach our obligations under such agreements. An event of default under a clearing agreement would give the clearing broker the option to terminate the clearing arrangement and any amounts owed to the clearing broker would be immediately due and payable. These obligations are full recourse to us.

Furthermore, we are highly dependent on our relationships with our clearing brokers. Any termination of our clearing arrangements whether due to a breach of the agreement by us or a default, bankruptcy or reorganization of a clearing broker would result in a significant disruption to our business as we clear all trades through these entities. Any such termination would have a significant negative impact on our dealings and relationship with our customers and there is no guarantee we would be able to replace any such clearing broker on similar terms.

We have market risk exposure from unmatched principal transactions entered into by our brokerage desks, which could result in substantial losses to us and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. 

We allow certain of our brokerage desks access to limited amounts of capital to enter into unmatched principal transactions in the ordinary course of business for the purpose of facilitating clients’ execution needs for transactions initiated by such clients or to add liquidity to certain illiquid markets. As a result, we have market risk exposure on these unmatched principal transactions. Our exposure will vary based on the size of the overall positions, the terms and liquidity of the instruments brokered, and the amount of time the positions will be held before we dispose of the positions.

We do not track our exposure to unmatched positions on an intra-day basis. These unmatched positions are intended to be held short-term, however, due to a number of factors, including the nature of a position and access to the market on which we trade, we may not be able to match each position or effectively hedge our exposure and often may be forced to hold a position overnight that has not been hedged. To the extent any unmatched positions are not disposed of intra-day, we mark those positions to market. Adverse movements in the securities underlying the positions or a downturn or disruption in the markets for the positions could result in our sustaining a substantial loss. In addition, any principal gains and losses resulting from these positions could, from time to time, have a disproportionate positive or negative effect on our financial condition and results of operations for a particular reporting period.

Pricing and other competitive pressures may impair the revenues and profitability of our brokerage business.  

In recent years, we have experienced significant pricing pressures on trading margins and commissions, primarily in debt trading. In the fixed income market, regulatory requirements have resulted in greater price transparency, leading to increased price competition and decreased trading margins. The trend toward using alternative trading systems is continuing to grow, which may result in decreased commission and trading revenue, reduce our participation in the trading markets and our ability to access market information, and lead to the creation of new and stronger competitors. Additional pressure on sales and trading revenue may impair the profitability of our brokerage business. We believe that price competition and pricing pressures in these and other areas will continue as institutional investors continue to reduce the amounts they are willing to pay, including reducing the number of brokerage firms they use, and some of our competitors seek to obtain market share by reducing fees, commissions or margins.

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Increase in capital commitments in our trading business increases the potential for significant losses.  

We may enter into transactions in which we commit our own capital as part of our trading business. The number and size of these transactions may materially affect our results of operations in a given period. We may also incur significant losses from our trading activities due to market fluctuations and volatility from quarter to quarter. We maintain trading positions in the fixed income markets to facilitate client-trading activities. To the extent that we own security positions, in any of those markets, a downturn in the value of those securities or in those markets could result in losses from a decline in value. Conversely, to the extent that we have sold securities we do not own in any of those markets, an upturn in those markets could expose us to potentially unlimited losses as we attempt to acquire the securities in a rising market. Moreover, taking such positions in times of significant volatility can lead to significant unrealized losses, which further impact our ability to borrow to finance such activities.

Our principal trading and investments expose us to risk of loss. 

A significant portion of our revenue is derived from trading in which we act as principal. The Company may incur trading losses relating to the purchase, sale or short sale of corporate and asset-backed fixed income securities and other securities for our own account and from other principal trading. In any period, we may experience losses as a result of price declines, lack of trading volume, general market conditions, employee inexperience, errors or misconduct, or illiquidity. From time to time, we may engage in a large block trade in a single security or maintain large position concentrations in a single security, securities of a single issuer, or securities of issuers engaged in a specific industry. In general, any downward price movement in these securities could result in a reduction of our revenues and profits.

In addition, we may engage in hedging transactions and strategies that may not properly mitigate losses in our principal positions. If the transactions and strategies are not successful, we could suffer significant losses.

 Our principal investments are subject to various risks and expose us to a significant risk of capital loss, which may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows. 

We use a portion of our own capital in a variety of principal investment activities, each of which involves risks of illiquidity, loss of principal and revaluation of assets. As of December 31, 2021, we had $56.0 million in other investments, at fair value.

We may use our capital, including on a leveraged basis, for principal investments in both private and public company securities that may be illiquid and volatile. The equity securities of any privately held entity in which we make a principal investment are likely to be restricted as to resale and may otherwise be highly illiquid. In the case of fund, SPAC-related or similar investments, our investments may be illiquid until such investment vehicles are liquidated. We expect that there will be restrictions on our ability to resell any such securities that we acquire for a period of time after we acquire such securities. Thereafter, a public market sale may be subject to volume limitations or be dependent upon securing a registration statement for an initial, and potentially secondary, public offering of the securities. Even if we make an appropriate investment decision, we cannot be assured that general market conditions will not cause the market value of our investments to decline. For example, an increase in interest rates, a general decline in the equity markets, or other market and industry conditions adverse to the type of investments we make and intend to make could result in a decline in the value of our investments or a total loss of our investment.

There are no regularly quoted market prices for a number of the investments we make. The value of our investments is determined using fair value methodologies described in valuation policies, which may take into consideration, among other things, the nature of the investment, the expected cash flows from the investment, bid or ask prices provided by third parties for the investment, the trading price of recent sales of securities (in the case of publicly traded securities), restrictions on transfer, and other recognized valuation methodologies. The methodologies we use in valuing individual investments are based on estimates and assumptions specific to the particular investments. Therefore, the value of our investments does not necessarily reflect the prices that would actually be obtained by us when such investments are sold. Realizations at values significantly lower than the values at which investments have been previously held would result in loses of potential incentive income and principal investments.

In addition, in our principal investment activities, our concentrated holdings, illiquidity and market volatility may make it difficult to value certain of our investment securities. Subsequent valuations, in light of factors then prevailing, may result in significant changes in the values of these securities in future periods. In addition, at the time of any sales and settlements of these securities, the price we ultimately realize will depend on the demand and liquidity in the market at that time and may be materially lower than current fair value of such securities. Any of these factors could require us to take write-downs in the value of our investment and securities portfolio, which may have an adverse effect on our results of operations in future periods. If we are unable to manage any of these risks effectively, our results of operations and cash flows could be materially and adversely affected.

Transition away from LIBOR as a benchmark reference for interest rates may affect the cost of capital and may require amending or restructuring existing debt instruments and related hedging arrangements for us, our investment funds and our separately managed accounts, and may impact the value of floating rate securities based on LIBOR we, our investment funds or our separately managed accounts hold or may hold in the future, which may result in additional costs or adversely affect our, our funds’ or our separately managed accounts’ liquidity, results of operations and financial condition.

We currently have $48,125 of par value debt which incurs interest based on the London interbank offered rate (“LIBOR”). In addition, we have a $25,000 line of credit pursuant to which amounts drawn bear interest based on LIBOR. As of December 31, 2021, there were no amounts drawn under this line of credit. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (the authority that regulates LIBOR) announced that it will cease publication of the most commonly used U.S. dollar LIBOR tenors after June 30, 2023, though the less commonly used tenors will cease publication after December 31, 2021.  U.S. federal banking agencies have issued guidance to strongly encourage institutions to cease entering into contracts that reference LIBOR by December 31, 2021.  Central banks and regulators in the U.S. and other jurisdictions are working to implement the transition to suitable replacements for LIBOR. As an alternative to LIBOR, for example, the U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large U.S. financial institutions, is considering replacing U.S. dollar LIBOR with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), a new index calculated by short-term repurchase agreements, backed by Treasury securities. Although there have been a few issuances utilizing SOFR or the Sterling Over Night Index Average, an alternative reference rate that is based on transactions, it is unknown whether any of these alternative reference rates will attain market acceptance as replacements for LIBOR. There is currently no definitive successor reference rate to LIBOR and various industry organizations are still working to develop workable transition mechanisms. As such, it is not possible to predict all potential effects of these changes on U.S. and global credit markets.

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The administrator of LIBOR announced its intention to extend the publication of U.S. dollar LIBOR (except for the one-week and two-month tenors) until June 30, 2023, subject to a consultation process, and the Federal Reserve Board, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association also issued concurrent statements agreeing with such announcement. Our investments funds and our separately managed accounts may need to amend or restructure our existing LIBOR-based debt instruments and any related hedging arrangements that extend beyond June 30, 2023, which may be difficult, costly and time consuming. In addition, from time to time our investment funds and separately managed accounts invest in floating rate loans and investment securities whose interest rates are indexed to LIBOR. Uncertainty as to the nature of alternative reference rates and as to potential changes or other reforms to LIBOR, or any changes announced with respect to such reforms, may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in the reported LIBOR rates and the value of LIBOR-based loans and securities, including those of other issuers we or our funds currently own or may in the future own, and may impact the availability and cost of hedging instruments and borrowings, including potentially, an increase to our and our funds’ and separately managed accounts’ interest expense and cost of capital. Any increased costs or reduced profits as a result of the foregoing may adversely affect our liquidity, results of operations and financial condition.

The historical returns of our funds and managed accounts may not be indicative of the future results of our funds and managed accounts. 

The historical returns of our funds and managed accounts should not be considered indicative of future results expected from such fund and managed accounts or from any future funds we may raise or managed accounts we may open. Our rates of return reflect unrealized gains, as of the applicable measurement date, which may never be realized due to changes in market and other conditions not in our control that may adversely affect the ultimate valuation of the investments in a fund. The returns of our funds may have also benefited from investment opportunities and general market conditions that may not repeat themselves, and there can be no assurance that our current or future funds will be able to avail themselves of profitable investment opportunities. Furthermore, the historical and potential future returns of the funds we manage also may not necessarily bear any relationship to potential returns on our shares.

There is increasing regulatory supervision of alternative asset management companies. 

As noted above, in the past several years, the financial services industry has been the subject of heightened scrutiny by regulators around the globe. In particular, the SEC and its staff have focused more narrowly on issues relevant to alternative asset management firms, forming specialized units devoted to examining such firms and, in certain cases, bringing enforcement actions against the firms, their principals and employees. In the last few years, there were a number of enforcement actions within the industry. The SEC announced that the 2020 examination priorities for the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations include such items as market infrastructure, information security, and anti-money laundering programs, but the SEC also signaled its intention to examine firms in emerging risk areas, such as robo-advice, digital assets, cybersecurity, SPACs, and new rules under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended and interpretations on standards of care. It is unclear, however, whether the SEC and its staff will increase the level of enforcement if, in the future, there is an effort on the part of the federal government to increase restrictions on business conduct, which could result in significant changes in, and uncertainty with respect to, legislation, regulation and government policy.

Some of our asset management clients generally may redeem their investments, which could reduce our asset management fee revenues.

Our asset management fund agreements generally permit investors to redeem their investments with us after an initial “lockup” period, during which redemptions are restricted or penalized. However, any such restrictions may be waived by us. Thereafter, redemptions are permitted at quarterly or annual intervals. If the return on the assets under our management does not meet investors’ expectations, investors may elect to redeem their investments and invest their assets elsewhere, including with our competitors. Our management fee revenues correlate directly with the amount of assets under our management; therefore, redemptions may cause our fee revenues to decrease. Investors may decide to reallocate their capital away from us and to other asset managers for a number of reasons, including poor relative investment performance, changes in prevailing interest rates that make other investments more attractive, changes in investor perception regarding our focus or alignment of interest, dissatisfaction with changes in or a broadening of a fund’s investment strategy, changes in our reputation, and departures or changes in responsibilities of key investment professionals. For these and other reasons, the pace of redemptions and corresponding reduction in our assets under management could accelerate. In the future, redemptions could require us to liquidate assets under unfavorable circumstances, which would further harm our reputation and results of operations.

The investment management business is intensely competitive, which could have a material adverse impact on our business. 

We have been working to grow our asset management business and we compete as an investment manager for both fund investors and investment opportunities. The investment management business is highly fragmented, with our competitors consisting primarily of sponsors of public and private investment funds, real estate development companies, SPACs, BDCs, investment banks, commercial finance companies and operating companies acting as strategic buyers of businesses. We believe that competition for fund investors is based primarily on:

• investment performance;

• investor liquidity and willingness to invest;

•  investor perception of investment managers’ drive, focus and alignment of interest;

• business reputation;

• the quality of services provided to fund investors;

• pricing;

•  fund terms (including fees); and

• the relative attractiveness of the types of investments that have been or will be made.

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We believe that competition for investment opportunities is based primarily on the pricing, terms and structure of a proposed investment and certainty of execution.  A number of factors serve to increase our competitive risks: 

• our competitors may have greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and more personnel than we do, and, in the case of some asset classes or geographic regions, longer operating histories, more established relationships, greater expertise or a better reputation;

•  fund investors may materially decrease their allocations in new funds due to their experiences following an economic downturn, the limited availability of capital, regulatory requirements or a desire to consolidate their relationships with investment firms;