ICICI Bank is awaiting the Reserve Bank's approval for acquiring Bank of Rajasthan and

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would initiate the process of integration once the regulatory clearances are received, a top official of the bank said.

"We have applied to RBI and RBI is processing the application (for merger of BoR with itself)," ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar told media.

It would be inappropriate to guess by when approvals would come, she said.

In May, both the banks agreed for the amalgamation and after getting shareholders nod moved to RBI on June 25 for approval of scheme of merger.

Post regulatory approvals, this would be the third acquisition by ICICI Bank. In past, it acquired Bank of Madura way back in 2001, while Maharashtra-based Sangli Bank was amalgamated in 2007.

The integration of BoR would help ICICI Bank increase its branch network by 25 per cent to about 2,500 across the country. It will give greater visibility to ICICI Bank in western and northern parts of the country.

ICICI Bank has about 2,000 branches while BoR has 463 spread across the country.

Post merger, the balancesheet of ICICI Bank would cross Rs four lakh crore. BoR has a total business of over Rs 23,000 crore, against nearly Rs 3,84,000 crore of ICICI Bank.

ICICI Bank agreed to take over Bank of Rajasthan in a share-swap deal that valued the Udaipur-based bank at over Rs 3,000-crore.

The share swap ratio was fixed at one ICICI Bank share for every 4.72 shares of BoR.