American Realty Capital and Sandler O'Neill to Collaborate on Sale-Leaseback Opportunities to Middle Market Financial Institutions.

NEW YORK -- American Realty Capital ("ARC") today announced that it has entered into an exclusive, multi-year agreement with Sandler O'Neill Mortgage Finance L.P., an affiliate of Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P. ("Sandler"), to deliver sale-leaseback opportunities with a primary focus on middle market financial institutions having between $500 million and $50 billion in assets.

Under the agreement, ARC and Sandler will identify and meet with select financial institutions to discuss the potential benefits of completing a sale-leaseback transaction, and where appropriate, facilitate ARC's acquisition and sale-leaseback of the financial institution's real estate on a long-term, net lease basis.

"Building strategic relationships has always been a core focus of our business model, and the partnership formed between ARC and Sandler is a perfect example of such a strategic union," said Nick Schorsch, CEO of American Realty Capital. "Our partnership provides the opportunity to blend the strengths of both companies to help financial institutions increase liquidity by monetizing their non-earning assets while improving efficiency ratios and eliminating underutilized properties. For the banks, this ultimately translates into creating shareholder value and improved earnings."

Tom Killian, a principal in the Investment Banking Group and manager of the sale-leaseback effort at Sandler noted that during this period of intense pressure on the banking industry, bank-owned real estate can be an important source of liquidity, earnings and capital for a banking institution. According to Mr. Killian, "The rationale for banks to consider sale-leaseback transactions of bank owned property is straightforward: such a transaction could enable the bank to raise cash to meet strategic and funding needs, convert non-earning 100% risk-weighted assets into potentially lower risk-weighted interest earning assets, mitigate potential risk of decline in market value of owned real estate, monetize off-balance sheet value into earnings over the life of the lease, and potentially bolster GAAP earnings."

Mark Fitzgibbon, a Principal and Director of Equity Research commented that "equity investors generally do not ascribe much credit to the off-balance sheet value of bank owned real estate when they value a company. Only by monetizing this value through the sale-leaseback of the property is that value recognized. During the difficult financial environment currently facing many banks, it is important for bank management to turn over all the rocks to find sources of earnings, capital and liquidity. Indeed major banks like Citi and SunTrust have announced significant sale-leaseback transactions in recent months. We think investors will likely view these types of transactions positively."

Founded in 1988, Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P. is a full-service investment banking firm dedicated to providing comprehensive, innovative advisory and transaction execution services to the financial industry. The firm specializes in strategic business planning, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, mutual-to-stock conversions, investment portfolio and interest rate risk management, fixed income securities transactions and mortgage finance restructurings. Additional information about Sandler can be found on the firm's Web site at www.sandleroneill.com.

American Realty Capital is a real estate finance and investment firm formed by Nicholas S. Schorsch and William M. Kahane. As CEO and board member, the two were behind the growth of American Financial Realty Trust, where they acquired over 1,500 properties valued at more than $5 billion. In the last five years, ARC's executive team has collectively negotiated and closed on over $7 billion of bank branch and net lease real estate. For more information, visit www.americanrealtycap.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results and trends could differ materially from those set forth in such statements due to various factors.