FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        Contact: Alan D. Eskow
                                             Executive Vice President & CFO
                                             973-305-4003

               VALLEY NATIONAL BANCORP COMPLETES MERCHANTS MERGER

WAYNE, N.J., January 19, 2001 - Valley National Bancorp (NYSE:VLY) completed its
previously  announced  merger with  Merchants  New York  Bancorp,  Inc.  (NASDAQ
NMS:MBNY), effective at the close of business today.

Under the terms of the agreement, Valley will acquire Merchants for common stock
valued at the time the  proposed  merger was  announced  on September 6, 2000 at
$375 million.  Structured as a tax-free merger and accounted for as a pooling of
interests,  each of the approximately 18,680,918 outstanding shares of Merchants
common stock will be exchanged for 0.7634 shares of Valley common stock.  Valley
will issue  approximately  14,261,013 shares of its common stock in exchange for
the outstanding shares of Merchants.

Valley will  continue to operate the former  Merchants  branches in Manhattan as
The Merchants Bank of New York, a Division of Valley National Bank.

 "The merger with Merchants is consistent with our company's  strategy of highly
focused  growth in the  contiguous  local  market  within  one hour of  Valley's
headquarters  in Wayne,  New Jersey,  through new branches and  acquisitions  of
other strong financial institutions," said Gerald H. Lipkin, Chairman, President
and CEO of  Valley  National  Bancorp.  "This  proximity  will  allow  Valley to
continue to operate as a super community bank.  Since  Merchants,  a traditional
commercial  bank,  does not focus on  consumer  banking or  commercial  mortgage
lending,  major  strengths at Valley,  we view this as an opportunity to enhance
Merchants revenue stream and as a significant growth opportunity. We expect this
acquisition to generate sufficient cost savings to make it accretive to earnings
during the first year."

Valley National  Bancorp is a regional holding company with Valley National Bank
as its principal  subsidiary.  Merchants New York Bancorp is the holding company
for The  Merchants  Bank of New York,  a  commercial  bank with $1.4  billion in
assets operating seven offices all located in Manhattan. The combined banks will
have $7.8  billion in assets and operate 125 branches in northern New Jersey and
Manhattan.

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The  foregoing  contains  forward-looking  statements  within the meaning of the
Private  Securities  Litigation  Reform  Act of 1995.  Such  statements  are not
historical  facts and include  expressions  about  management's  confidence  and
strategies and  management's  expectations  about new and existing  programs and
products, relationships,  opportunities, technology and market conditions. These
statements  may be identified by such  forward-looking  terminology as "expect",
"view",  "opportunity",  "enhance",  or similar statements or variations of such
terms. Such forward-looking  statements involve certain risks and uncertainties.
These  include,  but are not  limited  to,  the  direction  of  interest  rates,
continued levels of loan quality and origination volume, continued relationships
with  major  customers  including  sources of loans,  as well as the  effects of
economic  conditions  and legal and regulatory  barriers and  structure.  Actual
results  may differ  materially  form such  forward-looking  statements.  Valley
assumes no  obligation  for updating any such  forward-looking  statement at any
time.

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