Exhibit 99.1

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MEDALLION FINANCIAL REPORTS

2011 FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR RESULTS

NEW YORK, NY – March 7, 2011 – Medallion Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: TAXI), a specialty finance company with a leading position servicing the taxicab industry and other niche markets, announced that net income, or net increase in net assets resulting from operations was $5,632,000, or $0.32 per diluted common share in the 2011 fourth quarter, up from $4,667,000 or $0.27 per share in the 2010 fourth quarter. For the 2011 full year, net increase in net assets resulting from operations was $19,163,000 or $1.09 per diluted common share, up from $11,279,000 or $0.64 per share in 2010.

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Medallion Financial Announces 2011 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results p. 2

As the Company continues to use Medallion Bank as a primary funding source, it refers more loans to Medallion Bank for origination to take advantage of current short term borrowing costs as low as 0.4%. Medallion Financial’s net interest margin was 7.00% in the 2011 fourth quarter, up from 4.72% one year ago. The net interest margin for the year was 5.10%, up from 4.81% for the prior year. On a combined basis with Medallion Bank, the net interest margin increased to 6.68%, up from 6.59%, reflecting the reduced cost of funds at the bank. The net interest margins were the highest in the history of the Company.

Andrew Murstein, President of Medallion Financial stated, “We are extremely pleased with the year’s operating results. We continued to see strong taxi medallion collateral values demonstrated through price appreciation in taxi medallions throughout 2011. Prices in 2011 for corporate medallions in New York City increased during the year and reached $1,000,000 per medallion. We continue to experience zero losses on any New York City taxi medallion loan we have originated,” said Mr. Murstein. “The taxi industry remains resilient in this type of economic environment for several reasons such as corporate and consumer cutbacks on more expensive limousine and town car services, high taxi fleet utilization, and continuing high taxi ridership levels. In addition, the loan to value ratio on our entire medallion portfolio is approximately 40%.”

Larry D. Hall, Chief Financial Officer of Medallion Financial stated, “Medallion Financial’s capital and liquidity levels remained strong, with over $107,000,000 of deposit-raising capacity at Medallion Bank, in addition to over $97,000,000 of availability in our other funding sources. Medallion Financial’s leverage continues to be well under that of most other lending institutions with a debt to equity ratio of only 2.09 to 1.”

Mr. Hall continued, “In addition, during 2011 we have continued to replace higher cost borrowings with lower cost fixed and floating rate debt, further enhancing our profitability, and we see additional opportunities to continue this in 2012. For example, our $33,000,000 of Trust Preferred securities, which currently carry a fixed rate of 7.68%, will re-price to 90 day Libor plus 2.125% in September, or 2.61% at today’s rates, which should be accretive to subsequent earnings.”

Medallion Financial’s on-balance sheet taxicab medallion loan portfolio was $307,000,000 at year end, down from $323,000,000 a year ago, primarily due to the funding of most new medallion loan originations in Medallion Bank, and the Company’s sale of loan participations to third party banks. Total managed medallion loans increased $29,000,000 or 4% to

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Medallion Financial Announces 2011 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results p. 3

$677,000,000 at year end, up from $648,000,000 a year ago. Medallion Financial’s on-balance sheet commercial loan portfolio was $54,000,000 at year end, down from $77,000,000 a year ago. The managed commercial loan portfolio was $115,000,000 at year end, down from $138,000,000 last year. In both cases, the declines primarily reflected portfolio repayments and a continued focus on medallion lending.

Medallion Bank’s consumer loan portfolio increased 5% to $193,000,000 at year end from $183,000,000 a year ago. Overall total managed assets increased 4% to $1,141,806,000 at year end, up from $1,093,379,000 a year ago.

Asset quality remained very strong, with managed loans 90 days or more past due of only 1.8% at year end, up slightly from 1.4% a year ago.

The Company also announced an increase in the dividend to $0.20 per share for the 2011 fourth quarter, up from $0.16 per share in the 2010 fourth quarter. This brings the full year dividend to $0.74, up from $0.61 in 2010, a 21% increase. This equates to a yield of approximately 7% based on the closing price of the Company’s stock on March 6, 2012. The current dividend will be paid on March 30, 2012, to shareholders of record on March 23, 2012. Since the Company’s initial public offering in 1996, the Company has paid in excess of $167,901,000 or $10.60 per share in dividends.

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Medallion Financial Corp. is a specialty finance company with a leading position in the origination and servicing of loans financing the purchase of taxicab medallions and related assets. The Company also originates and services loans in other commercial industries, and its wholly-owned portfolio company, Medallion Bank, also originates and services consumer loans. The Company and its subsidiaries have lent approximately $5 billion to its taxicab industry and other small businesses.

Please note that this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties relating to business performance, cash flow, costs, sales, net investment income, earnings, and growth. Medallion’s actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, those factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors,” in Medallion’s 2010 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

MEDALLION FINANCIAL CORP.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

MEDALLION FINANCIAL CORP.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS