Exchange Bank reported its next quarterly stock dividend will rise by 20 percent, generating $172,000 more per year in revenue for the Santa Rosa Junior College’s Doyle scholarship program.

The Frank P. Doyle and Polly O’Meara Doyle scholarship, which assists students attending the SRJC, was reinstated earlier this year after being suspended in 2008 when Exchange Bank had to stop paying the dividends that had funded the scholarships since 1948.

Originally expected to provide around $850,000 a year for the scholarship program, Exchange Bank reported Aug. 21 the dividend will rise from 5 cents a share to 30 cents a share.

This will raise the scholarship to a little over $1 million, but still less than when the scholarship offered an annual $5.3 million a year to around 115,000 SRJC students in the past.

This news is not only good for SRJC students but for Exchange Bank as well, which is experiencing some of its most profitable numbers since the recession. The bank recently posted a 34 percent yearly increase in net income. Fred Ptucha, a financial advisor and bank analyst for the Progressive Assist Management Group in Santa Rosa, told the North Bay Business Journal that “when a company has increased its dividend, they rarely go backwards. It’s a strong sign that they feel it’s sustainable.”

while speaking to the Noth Bay Business Journal, Bill Schrader, president and chief executive of
Exchange Bank said, “We’re invested in every part in every part of this county,
from Cloverdale To Petaluma. We’re invested in agriculture, manufacturing and
households. As we improve, it is something of a bellwether for this economy.”