Ambanc Announces Appointment of New Director and Nominations for Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Business Editors

AMSTERDAM, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2000

John M. Lisicki, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ambanc Holding Co., Inc. (Nasdaq National Market: AHCI) today announced that LAWRENCE B. SEIDMAN has become a director of the Company by appointment of the Board of Directors effective March 24, 2000. His term as a director will expire at the annual meeting of shareholders on May 26, 2000. Mr. Seidman has also been nominated for election to a full three year term at the annual meeting. Mr. Seidman is an attorney and the manager of Seidman & Associates; a member of the Board of Directors of CNY Financial Corporation and Cortland Savings Bank; the President of Veteri Place Corp., the sole General Partner of Seidman Investment Partnership, LP and Seidman Investment Partnership II, LP; manager of Federal Holdings, L.L.C.; and a business consultant to certain corporations and individuals, including, but not limited to, Kerrimatt, LP and Crown Associates, L.L.C. These entities are generally engaged in investing in publicly-traded securities. Mr. Seidman is a former director of Crestmont Financial Corporation, The Savings Bank of Rockland County and Atlantic Gulf Corporation.

In addition to Mr. Seidman, three other incumbent board members have been nominated for reelection as directors of the Company for three-year terms expiring in 2003. They are: John J. Daly, former owner of Alpin Haus, Inc., a retail company located in Amsterdam, New York; Marvin R. LeRoy, Jr., Executive Director of the Alzheimer's Association, Northeastern New York Chapter; and Ronald S. Tecler, DDS, the majority stockholder of a professional corporation engaged in the practice of dentistry in Amsterdam, New York.

Ambanc Holding Co., Inc. is a unitary savings and loan holding company. The Company's primary subsidiary, Mohawk Community Bank, serves customers in seventeen upstate New York offices, located in Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Saratoga, Albany, Otsego, Chenango and Schoharie counties. The Bank's deposits are insured up to the maximum legal amount by the FDIC.