FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jefferies to Significantly Expand Electronic Trading Capabilities with Addition of Quantitative Strategies Team

Effort to be Led by Vlad Portnoy Will Provide Full Suite of Electronic Trading Systems with Focus on Innovative Trading Technologies for Small- and Mid-Cap Securities

NEW YORK, Mar 01, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Jefferies & Company, Inc., the principal operating subsidiary of Jefferies Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF), today announced the hiring of Vlad Portnoy, who will serve as Head of Quantitative Strategies, as well as six additional financial engineers and technologists to enhance and expand the Firm's electronic trading capabilities.

The addition of these experienced professionals, who all most recently worked at Banc of America Securities, provides Jefferies with an enhanced foundation for the broad expansion of the Firm's electronic trading offerings, including the creation of the next generation of agency and principal trading technologies focused on the trading of small- and mid-cap securities. With a total of 15 quantitative researchers, five of whom hold PhD degrees, the Firm's quantitative resources are now among the largest on Wall Street.

"The addition of these veteran quant professionals meaningfully complements Jefferies' leading institutional trading platform and will be a significant enhancement to our business going forward," commented Richard B. Handler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jefferies. "Jefferies will always lead with our trading platforms as part of our small- and mid-cap-focused strategy, and this action is another demonstration of our deep and continued commitment to serving our sales and trading clients with the very best options, both high-touch and low-touch."

"We're very excited to have these proven professionals join Jefferies, and, having worked together with all of them for a number of years, we hope to quickly offer our institutional customers, especially those focused on small- and mid-cap securities, the most innovative, market-leading products on Wall Street," said Ross L. Stevens, PhD, Head of Equity Products at Jefferies.

Mr. Portnoy added, "There are significant opportunities for us to further the trading resources available to Jefferies' customers, as well as enhance our traders' ability to improve upon the firm's market-leading crossing rates and best execution."

In addition to Mr. Portnoy, the new hires include financial engineers Valeri Smelyansky, PhD, Branko Stojkovic, PhD, and Victor Miller, PhD, who will work alongside Jefferies' existing team of Vesna Straser, PhD, Konstantin Zalutsky, PhD, and Lawrence Wang.

Jefferies has been serving institutional investors in equities since 1962 and has grown to be one of the leading firms providing liquidity and best execution to a broad group of customers around the world. With the continuing evolution of client needs, Jefferies has responded with an increasing array of trade execution capabilities. The Firm makes markets in over 5,000 stocks and trades the securities of more than 8,500 companies. Jefferies is a top ten broker in both NYSE and NASDAQ trading, and, through its affiliate Jefferies Execution Services, executes nearly 9% of the average daily reported volume on the NYSE.

All employees will work in the Firm's New York City headquarters office.

About Jefferies

Jefferies, a global investment bank and institutional securities firm, has served growing and mid-sized companies and their investors for over 40 years. Headquartered in New York, with more than 25 offices around the world, Jefferies provides clients with capital markets and financial advisory services, institutional brokerage, securities research and asset management. The Firm is a leading provider of trade execution in equity, high yield, convertible and international securities for institutional investors and high net worth individuals. Jefferies & Company, Inc. is the principal operating subsidiary of Jefferies Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF; www.jefferies.com).

SOURCE: Jefferies & Company, Inc.

Jefferies & Company, Inc.
Tom Tarrant, 203-708-5989
ttarrant@Jefferies.com