Center Bancorp Will Boost Dividend to $0.055 from $0.03

Center Bancorp, Inc.

, parent company of Union Center National Bank ("UCNB"), today announced that its Board of Directors intends to increase the quarterly cash dividend to $0.055 cents per share of common stock, representing an increase of $0.025 or 83.37% compared with the current declared dividend. The increase in the cash dividend will be effective with the quarterly declaration to be made later in May for the quarter ending June 30^th, payable on or about August 1, 2012, to all shareholders of record on July 13, 2012.