New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend

  New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: NHTB) has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of thirteen cents ($0.13) per share payable October 31, 2012, to stockholders of record as of October 24, 2012.

New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares, Inc. is the parent company of Lake Sunapee Bank, fsb, a federally-chartered stock savings bank which provides a wide range of banking and financial services and McCrillis & Eldredge Insurance, Inc., a full-line independent insurance agency which offers a complete range of commercial insurance services and consumer products. These wholly-owned subsidiaries operate through 29 offices strategically located within the greater Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee-Kearsarge and Monadnock regions of west-central New Hampshire and central Vermont. New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares, Inc. has total assets of approximately $1.1 billion.

For additional information contact: Laura Jacobi Senior Vice President Chief Financial Officer 603-863-0886