MRU Holdings, Inc. Announces Jonathan Coblentz has Joined the Company as Treasurer and Head of Capital Markets; Company Reaffirms Strong Lending Liquidity Position of More Than $230 Million as It Heads Into Busy Student Lending Season

NEW YORK, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MRU Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:UNCL), a specialty finance company that provides federal and privatestudent loans through its consumer brand MyRichUncle(TM), today announcedthat Jonathan Coblentz has joined the Company as Treasurer and Head ofCapital Markets, reporting to Vishal Garg, Co-Founder and Chief FinancialOfficer. "One of our key priorities is to attract first-class talent to help usexecute our growth strategy going forward," said Vishal Garg, Co-Founderand CFO. "We are extremely pleased to have Jonathan on our team as hebrings extensive experience in capital markets in the consumer financearena. In his short time with us he has already proven himself to beinvaluable through his contribution to the successful completion of ourrecent $200 million securitization, which was executed at terrific levelsfor a first time issuer such as MRU." Jonathan has 14-years of experience in structured finance and haspreviously worked at leading hedge funds and investment banks. He has abroad background in the consumer finance industry, having financed andinvested in student loans, credit cards, auto loans, and home equities. Hisexperience in the student loan industry dates back to 1993 when he workedon the team at First Boston that developed the first student loansecuritizations. In 1992, Jonathan began his structured finance career in the AssetBacked Finance Group of The First Boston Corporation (now Credit Suisse).During the nearly five years he spent there, he structured and executedsecuritizations for clients across a broad range of consumer asset classes.As part of this work, he helped various student lenders develop theirstudent loan securitization programs. After leaving First Boston in 1997,Jonathan joined Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he worked initially as an assetbacked banker and later joined the firm's Principal Finance group. Prior toleaving Goldman in 2004, Jonathan lead the student loan finance team, whichsuccessfully re-established the firm's presence in the student loan ABSmarket. In the last two-years prior to joining MRU, Jonathan worked instructured finance at Fortress Investment Group, sourcing and analyzinginvestment opportunities in consumer and commercial finance and theinsurance industry. Jonathan graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1992,receiving a B.S. in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Economics. In addition, MRU confirmed that its liquidity position remains strongas the Company heads into the busiest period of the year for student loanoriginations. The Company has committed long-term and recently renewedcredit facilities from its lenders with total spare capacity exceeding $200million in addition to over $30 million in pre-funding accounts from itslast securitization. "Our relationships with our lending partners are long term and willhelp us to serve the needs of what we believe will be a larger number ofcustomers who will be looking for student loans this season as other formsof financing that have traditionally been utilized to pay for college suchas home equity or mortgages become increasingly unattractive or expensivefor families. As traditional student loan companies, which are focused onmarketing federal student loans evaluate exiting the business, MRU standsready to service students and their families with a one-stop shop financingsolution for college and graduate school financing" said Vishal Garg. About MRU Holdings, Inc. MRU Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNCL) is a publicly traded specialtyfinance company that provides students with funds for higher educationusing a blend of current market credit practices as well as its ownproprietary analytic models and decision tools. The Company has a renownedbrand name "MyRichUncle(TM)" and highly scalable originationinfrastructure. The Company utilizes these assets to provide private andfederal loans to students. MRU distinguishes itself from the competition asit does not take a "one-size fits all" approach to designing student loanproducts, allowing itself and its marketing partners to create a studentloan offering that directly addresses their specific customer needs.Additional information concerning MRU Holdings is available athttp://www.MRUHoldings.com. About MyRichUncle From its inception in 2000, MyRichUncle has been at the forefront ofinnovation for education finance, most recently focusing on the growthmarket of student loans. Since May of 2005, MyRichUncle has originated morethan $195 million private and federal student loans using its breakthroughunderwriting platforms and innovative technology to deliver competitivelypriced products and services to borrowers. In May 2006, the Companylaunched Preprime(TM), the first and only student loan that allows studentsto qualify for loans based on individual merit, rather than credit historyalone. In June 2006, MyRichUncle launched its Federal student loans withupfront interest rate reductions at repayment. Dedicated to reshaping thestudent loan industry to function in the best interests of the students,founders Vishal Garg and Raza Khan and their team are committed todelivering the most innovative solutions for their customers. The Companyand its founders have been recognized by Fast Company's Fast 50 (2006) andlisted among BusinessWeek.com's Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs (2006). Formore information, visit http://www.myrichuncle.com. UNCLF