PRESS RELEASE


                              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Robert J. Brittain, President and CEO                      
Tel:(518) 842-7200
Fax:(518) 842-7500
Harold A. Baylor, Jr., Vice Pres., CFO, and Treas.
Tel:(518) 842- 7200
Fax:(518) 842-1688


       Ambanc Holding Co., Inc. Announces Regular Quarterly Cash Dividend


Amsterdam,  N.Y.,  March 2,  1998 - Robert  J.  Brittain,  President  and  Chief
Executive  Officer of Ambanc Holding Co., Inc. (NASDAQ - AHCI),  today announced
that the  Company's  board of  directors,  at their meeting held on February 27,
1998,  declared a regular  quarterly  cash dividend of 6 cents per common share.
The dividend  will be paid on March 20, 1998,  to  shareholders  of record as of
March 6, 1998.  The 6 cents per common  share is an increase by 1 cent,  or 20%,
from the amount paid per share by the Company in the fourth quarter of 1997.

Ambanc  Holding Co.,  Inc. is a unitary  savings and loan holding  company.  The
company's primary  subsidiary,  Amsterdam Savings Bank, F.S.B.,  operates twelve
(12)  full-service  banking offices in Montgomery (4), Saratoga (4), Fulton (1),
Schenectady  (1), and Albany (2)  Counties in the Capital  Region of upstate New
York.





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