Directors of Mercury Savings & Loan Assn....

Directors of Mercury Savings & Loan Assn. of Huntington Beach have voted to resume paying quarterly cash dividends to shareholders beginning next month and have declared a 10-cent-per-share dividend payable on or before Sept. 16 to stockholders of record Sept. 3.

The action marks the first quarterly cash dividend since April, 1981, when the association, buffeted by high interest rates and a sagging real estate market, suspended the payments.

In voting the dividend, the board cited Mercury’s increasing profits, its adequate reserves for potential loan or investment losses, and an increasing business volume.

The dividends will cost the association, which operates 27 offices, about $492,000 per quarter.