CFX: Declares Regular Quarterly Dividend

            


Contact:  Mark A. Gavin, EVP/Chief Operating Officer
          (603) 355-8604



                    CFX CORPORATION DECLARES
                REGULAR QUARTERLY COMMON DIVIDEND

Keene, N.H., June 10, 1997 -- The Board of Directors of CFX
CORPORATION (AMEX: CFX) has declared a regular quarterly
Common Stock dividend of $.22 per share, payable July 18, 1997
to shareholders of record, June 20, 1997.

CFX Corporation is a multi-bank holding company with total
assets of $1.74 billion as of March 31, 1997. The Company's
three banking subsidiaries are CFX Bank, headquartered in
Keene, New Hampshire, Orange Savings Bank, headquartered in
Orange, Massachusetts, and The Safety Fund National Bank,
headquartered in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. CFX Mortgage, Inc.,
CFX Bank's mortgage banking subsidiary, services approximately
$886 million in mortgage loans for others. In addition, CFX
Funding L.L.C., a 51% owned subsidiary of CFX Bank that
engages in the facilitation of lease financing and rated
securitizations, now services over $108 million in leases for
others. The Company operates 43 full service offices, 2 loan
production offices, and 68 automated teller and remote service
banking locations in New Hampshire and central Massachusetts,
and operates a trust division with assets of approximately
$371 million.

Upon completion of CFX's pending acquisitions of Portsmouth
Bank Shares, Inc. and Community Bankshares, Inc. (expected in
the third quarter of 1997) and planned increases in the
balance sheet leverage associated with the Portsmouth
transaction, it is anticipated that CFX will have
approximately $2.7 billion in assets, 57 full-service banking
offices, 2 loan production offices and 88 automated teller and
remote service locations in New Hampshire and central
Massachusetts.

Portsmouth Bank Shares, Inc., a bank holding company
headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, had 3 full-service
branches, and $263 million in total assets as of March 31,
1997. Community Bankshares, Inc., a bank holding company,
headquartered in Concord, New Hampshire, had 11 full-service
branches and total assets of $581 million as of March 31,
1997.


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